'Pained' to learn that PM did not vote: Modi

Using the occasion of B R Ambedkar's birth anniversary, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday took a swipe at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for not voting in the assembly elections in Assam.

"Today, when we are celebrating the birth anniversary of Dr B R Ambedkar, I am pained to learn that the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh did not vote in the assembly elections in Assam," Modi said while speaking to reporters at a seminar at the Pandit Deen Dayal Petroleum University in Gandhinagar.

"Ambedkarji gave us the Constitution, and the Constitution gave us the right to vote. To know that the prime minister did not vote in the assembly polls is a very saddening act for the people of the country," he said.

"It is even more saddening, on the birth anniversary of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar," Modi said.

Congress hit back at Modi for targeting the prime minister, saying he was raising issues which are completely "devoid of substance".

"It does not require very much intelligence to understand that a PM of the size of a country like India obviously has legitimate preoccupations. So I don't think it really serves the Bharatiya Janata Party or the CM of Gujarat to be raising issues which are completely devoid of substance," Congress spokesperson Manish Tiwari said.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his wife Gursharan Kaur are registered voters from Assam's Dispur assembly constituency, where polling was held on April 11.

Dr Singh has been a Rajya Sabha member from Assam for the last two decades.