Gujarat Polls: PM Modi lashes out at Rahul Gandhi for visiting Somnath, says Nehru opposed temple's construction

The campaigning by political parties in poll-bound Gujarat is in full force as Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday slammed Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for his visit to Somnath temple. He said that Rahul's great-grandfather and the country's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru had opposed the idea of building a temple at Somnath.

PM Modi said that when Dr Rajendra Prasad was to come to inaugurate the Somnath temple, Pandit Nehru expressed his displeasure. "Sardar Patel dreamt about the Narmada but your family did not let that dream fulfil," he said.

"If there was no Sardar Patel, the temple in Somnath would never have been possible. Today some people are remembering Somanth, I have to ask them - Have you forgotten your history? Your family members, our first Prime Minister, was not happy with the idea of a temple being built there," Modi said while addressing an election rally in Prachi.

Modi also slammed Rahul for calling GST 'Gabbar Singh Tax' and said those who looted the country could only think of dacoits.

In a stinging rebuttal to Gandhi's growing criticism of the Goods and Services Tax, a key economic reform of the NDA government, Modi said a recently emerged "economist" was propagating a "grand stupid thought" by suggesting that GST rate be capped at 18 per cent.