Congress attacks Narendra Modi over marital status

The Congress on Thursday attempted to put a question mark over the character of BJP's prime ministerial nominee Narendra Modi for allegedly hiding his marital status and allowing the woman he married to fend for herself for the past 46 years. Congress women cell chief Shobha Ojha fired a volley of question what was the compulsion to concede his marriage.

Question are being raised as why did he deprived his wife Jashodaben for the last 46 years from her social, legal and moral rights. Asked why the Congress trying to do politics on the private life of the rival party's leader, Ojha shot back that she and all women have to stand up for a woman who suffered his torture silently for all these years.

Meanwhile, seeking to contain a controversy over Modi's marital status, his elder brother Somabhai on Thursday said that the BJP prime ministerial candidate's marriage should be seen as a "social formality" which happened nearly 50 years ago. In a statement sent to the media by the BJP, Somabhai said, "Our parents had not studied much and we were a poor family. To them Narendra was like any other child. In such context our parents conducted his marriage in a tender age with Jashodaben, but it turned out to be just a social formality for the sake of it."

—With inputs from agencies