The 'chai wala' is being welcomed across the country: Narendra Modi

Tea vendors are holding their heads high and are being welcomed everywhere, BJP star Narendra Modi - who sold tea when he was young - said Sunday.

"The 'chai wala' is being welcomed across the country. Tea vendors are holding their heads high," Modi told a BJP leadership meeting here, triggering cheering and clapping at the Ramlila Maidan.

Modi's comments followed Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar's barb that Modi was free to sell tea at a Congress session Friday.

Modi said the Congress had a "feudalistic mindset" and they were finding it difficult to adjust with someone who sold tea, who was from a "backward caste" and whose mother once washed utensils in other homes.