Omar stands up for Modi

Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi has found an unlikely supporter in Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah, who, criticising Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar for his "chaiwaala remark" about Modi, said such remarks were "not helping the Congress".

Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi has found an unlikely supporter in Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah, who, criticising Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar for his "chaiwaala remark" about Modi, said such remarks were "not helping the Congress".

"Modi has a lot of negatives but his humble origins are a positive some of us can't claim. We aren't helping our campaign by mocking him," Omar wrote on the micro-blogging website Twitter on Friday.

Aiyar on Friday had raked up the issue of Modi's background, saying, "Modi can never be the Prime Minister, only a tea-stall owner".

"He can never be the Prime Minister of our nation. However, if he wants, we could arrange a tea stall for him here," Aiyar had remarked.

Support from the J&K CM has come as a surprise as last month, the two leaders were involved in a public 'verbal duel' over Article 370.

While addressing a rally in Jammu, Modi had used the example of Abdullah's sister Sara, who is married to union minister Sachin Pilot, while claiming that the citizenship laws in the Valley were discriminatory.

Omar had hit back saying that Modi was either "ill-informed or lying".