Union minister Ramdas Athawale on Friday made a personal attack on Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati a day after the latter, for the second time, targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his marital status.
Athawale, the chief of the Republican Party of India (A) – an NDA ally, slammed Mayawati saying that she doesn’t know what a family is as she is unmarried.
“Mayawati is making remarks about Modi-ji and his wife. She (Mayawati) is not married; she doesn’t know what a family is. Had she been married she would have known how to handle a husband,” Athawale was quoted as saying by ANI.
He also requested Mayawati not to make personal attacks on the PM.
“We respect Mayawati. She should not make such statements,” he added.
Mayawati had at a rally in Varanasi on Thursday, launched a personal attack on the PM saying that one cannot expect Modi to respect women since he cannot respect his own wife.
“As the election is coming to an end, Modi now remembers women and talk about giving them respect. How can one expect Modi, who cannot respect his wife, to do so for mothers and sisters?” asked Mayawati.
Read More | How one can expect PM Modi to respect women when he cannot respect his own wife: Mayawati in Varanasi
BSP alliance partners, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and RLD’s Ajit Singh, were also present at the rally.
In a press statement issued earlier this week, Mayawati had said, “I have come to know that in 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.”
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had on 13 May slammed Mayawati for her remarks, saying that she was “unfit for public life”.
“Behan Mayawati – She is firm on becoming a Prime Minister. Her governance, ethics and discourse stoops to an all-time low. Her personal attack today on the Prime Minister exposes her as unfit for public life,” tweeted Jaitley.
Polling in the last phase of the Lok Sabha election 2019 will be held on 19 May on 59 seats in 7 states and 1 UT.