Modi created deep chasm, retorts Cong on his potholes barb

New Delhi: The ongoing Congress-Narendra Modi spat today saw the Chief Minister saying that he had been left with "potholes" to fill in Gujarat by Congress which retorted that he had created a "deep chasm" in the state.

"Somebody will have to surely fill up the deep chasm, he has created," party general secretary Janardan Dwivedi said apparently alluding to the 2002 riots while responding to Modi`s remarks. Modi had taken a dig at the party saying "my Congress friends had created so many potholes that so far I have been filling them." "I have brought it to a level playing field now. Imagine how big those potholes were. Now the effort will be to build an impressive, grand Gujarat," the BJP leader said while replying to a question on development work done by him in Gujarat. Modi was speaking during his hour-long interaction organised by the FICCI Ladies Organisation in which a number of entrepreneurs here. Asked about Modi`s remarks, Dwivedi had earlier said that "party men from Gujarat will reply to it". Congress has on many occasions sought to dismiss Modi as a leader who is confined to Gujarat and one who lacks a pan-India identity. "BJP has not taken any decision about the person whose name you are taking. I will reply to all questions on what has been said by the BJP. I do not want to take the name of a person on whose name there is no consensus even within the BJP," the Congress general secretary said. Dwivedi also refused to respond to Modi`s barb at Rahul Gandhi today. Talking of women`s entrepreneurship, he referred to a Jasubehn, whose pizzas could beat even known international brands, in Gujarat. "But before our friends from the media go there to find out if Jasubehn is like Kalavati," Modi said in a barb aimed at Rahul Gandhi who had in a speech in Parliament referred to Kalavati, the widow of a poor farmer who had committed suicide in Vidarbha region of Maharashtra a few years ago. Modi had earlier attacked Rahul Gandhi`s `beehive` remark accusing him of insulting `Bharat Mata`, prompting Congress leaders to say that metaphors denoting cohesion and unity were beyond the comprehension of "self appointed jingoists" and that Delhi is still far off for the Gujarat Chief Minister. PTI