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Updated: May 13, 2019 23:56 IST

The simmering war of words between Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati and leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) boiled over on Monday with the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister bringing up Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s wife and his caste in comments that triggered a backlash from several senior BJP leaders, who called her “unfit for public life”.

The barbs between Mayawati and Modi had started in connection with a case of gang rape in Rajasthan’s Alwar during their separate election rallies over Saturday and Sunday.

“How can he [Modi] respect others’ sisters and wives when he has left his own innocent wife for political gains,” Mayawati said at a rally for the Mahagathbandhan (grand alliance) candidate in Gorakhpur, which is among the 59 constituencies set to go to polls in the final phase on May 19.

She also said Modi was a “fake OBC” [other backward class] and that people use abusive language against him because he deserves it.

The remarks were soon condemned by Union ministers. “Behan [sister] Mayawati - She is firm on becoming a Prime Minister. Her governance, ethics and discourse stoops to an all-time low. Her personal attack today on the Prime Minister exposes her as unfit for public life,” said finance minister Arun Jaitley in a tweet.

Jaitley’s colleague, defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman, said Mayawati’s comments reflected nervousness. “Behen Mayawatiji has understood that her gathbandhan is getting nowhere and this is the reason for her worry and sense of insecurity,” she said at a press conference in the capital.

On Sunday, Mayawati and Modi targeted each other over a gang rape in Rajasthan’s Alwar, with the Prime Minister saying the UP leader was “shedding crocodile tears” and asking why she did not withdraw support to the Congress government in the state. She hit back with allegations that people, especially Dalits, were in greater danger since the Modi government came to power.

“I have come to know that in the BJP, women leaders get scared when they see their husbands going near PM Modi. They fear that like Modi they might also abandon their wives,” Mayawati separately said while speaking to a news agency in Lucknow on Monday.

The Alwar incident has become a subject of political debate after the husband of a woman raped by four men said that police hushed up the crime until the elections in the constituency had been held. Both leaders initially took aim at the Congress which is in power, before turning their attention towards each other.

Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot on Monday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of ignoring facts and deliberately targeting him over the Alwar crime. “PM Modi has personally targeted me on various occasions. Be it in election campaign in UP, MP or Rajasthan,” he said. “When I was in charge of Gujarat, he misled and provoked farmers there against me. He had no moral right to come to Rajasthan and campaign,” he added.

BSP’s six legislators are part of the coalition heading the government in Rajasthan.