BJP’s Gujarat campaign beyond bizarre, says P Chidambaram

New Delhi: Congress leader P. Chidambaram on Monday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s campaign for the BJP in Gujarat had gone “beyond bizarre” and asked whether a political party should go to any length to win an election.

The former Union finance and home minister also wondered whether winning an election was so important that “such allegations” can be made against a former prime minister and a former vice-president.

Addressing an election rally in Palanpur, Gujarat, on Sunday, Mr Modi had suggested that Pakistan was trying to influence Assembly polls in the state.

He claimed that some Pakistani officials and Manmohan Singh met at Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar’s house over dinner on December 6. This was a day before Aiyar’s “neech” jibe against Mr Modi. “The BJP’s campaign in Gujarat in the last few days, especially yesterday, has gone beyond bizarre. Should a political party go to any length to win an election?” Chidambaram said on Twitter.

In a new twist to the vitriol-filled campaign, Mr Modi had said in Palanpur that the dinner at Mr Aiyar’s house was attended by Pakistan’s high commissioner, Pakistan’s former foreign minister, India’s former vice president and former prime minister Manmohan Singh.

Though Modi did not name the ex-vice president present at the meeting, BJP president Amit Shah said in Ahmedabad that it was Hamid Ansari.