Parties get into political slugfest as seven-phase polls near end

The ensuing slugfest between political parties the BJP, Congress and BSP reached a crescendo before the last phase of Lok Sabha elections for 59 seats on Monday with both parties trying to run each other down in a war of words.

Beginning a slanging match, BSP supremo Mayawati launched a personal attack on PM Modi alleging that women in the BJP are scared of their husbands fearing they might also "abandon their wives".

"I have come to know that in the BJP, women leaders get scared when they see their husbands going near PM Modi. They fear that like Modi they might also abandon their wives," Mayawati said in a press statement.

BJP put up defence minister Nirmala Sitharam to respond, who said that Mayawati should be rest assured that woman leaders in the BJP are "safe and secure" unlike other parties, and have very professional relations with party colleagues.

Acknowledging Mayawati for finding her way into politics through difficult circumstances, Sitharaman accused her of not taking up the cause of the Dalit woman in Rajasthan who was gang raped.

While she demanded Mayawati to apologise for uttering demeaning, BJP leader Bizay Sonkar Shastri accused the BSP chief of corruption, claiming that companies linked to her family members have become a conduit to launder her "black money".

On the other the Congress attacked the BJP for having pathological hatred against Nehru by citing Ratlam candidate Guman Singh Damor's controversial statement on Jinnah.

Damor, in an election rally on Saturday in Ranapur town of Madhya Pradesh, said, "If Nehru was not obstinate during the time of Independence, then this nation would not have been divided into two…Jinnah was an advocate and a learned man. If a decision was taken to make Jinnah PM at the time, then India would not have been partitioned."

Dubbing the BJP as 'Bharatiya Jinnah Party', Congress spokesperson, Pawan Khera sought PM Modi's apology over BJP candidate Guman Singh Damor's statement.

"Those who created furore over Jinnah's portrait in Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) are now campaigning for a person who praised Jinnah. Damor with his remarks has exposed the thinking of the BJP and the RSS," alleged Khera.

"There can be two things. Either these people have become so blinded by their hatred against Nehru that they end up loving Jinnah, or they have become so blinded by their love for Jinnah that they end up hating Nehru," added Khera.