Reacting to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi's speech in Imphal, Minister of Information and Broadcasting Manish Tewari on Saturday said that the development of Gujarat was due to the Congress, and not because of Modi as he liked to claim.

"The primary question is that how much has Gujarat progressed in the past 11years? Whatever development has been witnessed in Gujarat is due to the Congress," said Tewari.

"Narendra Modi is ready to discuss about tea but is not ready to discuss his model of development. We challenge him to come on an open debate anywhere on his tall claims about development of Gujarat," he said.

"He hasn't been coming forward as he does not have any answer to it, but he needs to come up with an answer. He can think about the nation's development later," he added.

Addressing a rally in Imphal, Modi had said that the Congress government had terribly failed in developing the north east region.

He also said that the state in which Manipur is now was bleak and cited the example of Gujarat to draw a comparison.

He further said that Manipur has had the worst governments of the Congress.