Rahul Gandhi with his sister Priyanka on his way to file nomination from Amethi
Congress vice president
Rahul Gandhi said on Saturday that he did not make any "personal remark" on
Narendra Modi, after controversy over his comments on the affidavit file by the BJP's prime ministerial candidate in which he admitted that he is married.
"I didn't make any personal remark, just stated the facts. I just said that he (Modi) has mentioned something not previously mentioned in his affidavits," Mr Gandhi said after filing his nomination from Amethi in Uttar Pradesh.
Mr Gandhi, 43, who had spoken about Mr Modi's marital status at an election rally in Jammu and Kashmir on April 11, refused to take any further questions on the topic. "We don't know how many elections he has fought, but for the first time he has written that he is married. In Delhi, they talk about respecting women... but his wife's name never found its way into the affidavit," he had said in the rally. (
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The BJP had slammed Mr Gandhi's remark. "It will cost Congress heavily. Don't get into this, it will boomerang you," senior BJP leader Venkaiah Naidu said on Friday.
"There are several family issues of the Nehru-Gandhi family that we are aware of. Some of it is also recorded in documents...But we will not discuss it in public because we have a standard," said BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad. (
Don't rake leaders' private life in public: BJP tells Congress)
Sources in the Congress said Mr Gandhi's sister Priyanka, who is overseeing the party campaign, was against any personal attacks and reportedly advised her brother not to get personal.
Earlier, Mr Gandhi along with his mother and party chief Sonia Gandhi, sister Priyanka and brother-in-law Robert Vadra reached Amethi to file his nomination papers. (
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The Congress vice president also took part in a roadshow.
Mr Gandhi, who won from Amethi in 2004 and 2009, faces BJP's
Smriti Irani and Aam Aadmi Party's Kumar Vishwas this time. (
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