Don't rake leaders' private life in public: BJP tells Congress

The BJP Friday warned the Congress against bringing the private matters of their leader's life in public, saying the Bharatiya Janata Party also knew about several "family issues" of the Gandhi family.

"There are several family issues of the Nehru-Gandhi family that we are aware of. Some of it is also recorded in documents..." BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad said Friday.

"But we will not discuss it in public because we have a standard," he said.

The comment came as Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi Friday taunted the BJP and said the party talks of women empowerment but refuses to talk about its prime ministerial hopeful Narendra Modi's wife Jashodaben.

Prasad said: "Modi's elder brother wrote a letter and made it clear that it was a child marriage. He then became a Sangh Pracharak... When the elder brother has clarified on the issue, why is the Congress raking up the issue?"

Modi was a "pracharak" or grassroot worker of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). Pracharaks are supposed to remain unmarried.

Modi wrote Jashodaben as the name of his wife in an affidavit while filing his nomination papers for the Lok Sabha election from Vadodara, Gujarat. He had so far kept quiet on the issue of his marital status.

Party spokesperson Nirmala Sitharaman added: "They (Congress) would go to any length to stop Modi."