Exercise utmost restraint: Modi, Jaitley to BJP well-wishers

Expressing disapproval over "irresponsible" statements, BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi and senior leader Arun Jaitley Tuesday urged the party's well-wishers to exercise restraint.

"I disapprove (of) any such irresponsible statement & appeal to those making them to kindly refrain from doing so," Modi tweeted.

Jaitley wrote in his blog: "Even an isolated irresponsible statement will bring discredit to us. Every sensible well-wisher of the BJP is expected to exercise utmost restraint and concentrate on the issue of governance, which is the theme of our campaign. Any statement to the contrary will only help our rivals."

The Bharatiya Janata Party leaders' reaction comes in the wake of Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Pravin Togadia and party leader Giriraj Singh's reported hate speeches.

Modi said that with great happiness, the entire nation was looking towards the BJP for going to the people solely on the issues of good governance and development.

"Petty statements by those claiming to be BJP's well-wishers are deviating the campaign from the issues of development and good governance," he wrote without naming the leaders.

Togadia, who reportedly said Muslims should be thrown out of Hindu areas, had Monday triggered a controversy.

Giriraj Singh, during an election rally in Deogarh, Jharkhand, had said that those opposing Modi will have no place in India but in Pakistan.

Jaitley also attacked the Congress in his blog, saying that the leadership of that party was non-inspirational while Modi has become a "symbol of hope" for the country.

Targeting Congress leader Amarinder Singh yet again, Jaitley said his politics reflected his "feudal instincts" and called him an "emperor".

"He (Amarinder Singh) denies that he ever gave (Jagdish) Tytler a clean chit. He, in a monarchical style, shouts down criticism and refuses to take questions.

"Having been caught lying with a straight face on the property tax and the Jagdish Tytler issue, any other candidate would have been put to shame before the people," he said, referring to the former Punjab chief minister purportedly giving a clean chit to Congress leader Tytler over his involvement in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.