PM Modi congratulates Rahul Gandhi on elevation as Congress president

Prime Minister Narendra Modi today congratulated Rahul Gandhi on his election as the Congress president even as the two are engaged in a bitter political battle in Gujarat where assembly elections are on.

"I congratulate Rahul Ji on his election as Congress president. My best wishes for a fruitful tenure," Modi tweeted from his personal twitter handle @narendramodi.

Modi's congratulatory message came on a day when a huge row broke out over his insinuation yesterday that his predecessor Manmohan Singh was colluding with Pakistan in influencing the Gujarat polls. The former prime minister shot back today, saying Modi was setting a "dangerous precedent", and asked him to apologise to the nation.

As Manmohan Singh crossed swords with Modi over his "ill-thought transgression" and rejected his charge as "innuendos and falsehoods", Congress's senior spokesperson Anand Sharma accused the prime minister of dragging the political discourse to an "unacceptable low" by making statements that harmed the dignity of his post.

Rahul Gandhi was today elected unopposed as Congress president.

He is likely to formally take over the reins of the party on December 16.

The 47-year-old scion of the Nehru-Gandhi family was the lone candidate in the fray.

Rahul Gandhi succeeds his mother Sonia Gandhi, who occupied the post for 19 years.