Vadodara: BJP`s Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi`s love for Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel was due to the coming Lok Sabha polls, leader of opposition in Gujarat Assembly Shankarsinh Vaghela alleged on Thursday.
"There is no doubt that Sardar Patel, known as the Iron Man of India, was one of the tallest leaders of the country," said Vaghela, adding that no leader could be compared to him.
He said that though senior BJP leader L K Advani too had been projected as "Iron man of India", when he was a union home minister in the Vajpayee-led NDA government from 1998 to 2004, he (Advani) could not become Prime Minister.
"Same thing will happen to Modi who is trying to project himself as the Iron man of India by building a statue in memory of Sardar Patel," Congress leader said.
Vaghela said that the Modi government`s project to build the tallest statue of Patel as the `Statue of Unity,` smacked of "sheer political opportunism".
"The BJP has no moral authority to build a memorial for Sardar Patel, since it works against Patel`s values like democracy, secularism and love for the people," he said.
Vaghela also criticised Modi`s model of development in Gujarat where 7,000 farmers had committed suicide in six years and worsening of the law and order situation.
He also expressed concern over the state government`s failure to find out who were responsible for the train carnage incident at Godhra railway station on February 27, 2002 which claimed the lives of 59 Ram devotees.
Vaghela was in the city for a get together of Congress workers organised by former president of the party`s Vadodara unit Suresh Patel.
