Retaliating against a Gujarat Congress leader dubbing Narendra Modi as a regional leader and therefore no match for Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi, the state chief minister directed his tirade at the scion of the Nehru-Gandhi family on Monday.
"Recently, someone from the Congress said there is no comparison between Modi and Rahul because Modi is a regional leader while Rahul is a pan-India leader," Modi said.
"I am proud that I am a regional leader of Gujarat but Rahul is not only a national leader, he is an international leader and can contest polls from Italy also," Modi added while addressing a youth convention in Rajkot.
Modi’s remarks came after Gujarat leader of the opposition Shaktisinh Gohil recently said Modi and Rahul Gandhi could not be compared with each other. Gohil also said, "Modi is a power grabber while Rahul has preferred to work for people in the party rather than joining the UPA government."
Without mentioning Congress chief Sonia Gandhi by name, Modi, who has launched a month-long Swami Vivekananda Yatra ahead of the Gujarat assembly polls due in December, has been obliquely raking up the issue of Sonia Gandhi's foreign origin.