Senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad on Sunday said he likes leaders like Prime Minister Narendra Modi who are proud of their roots and noted that Modi speaks frankly about his past as a tea-seller.

Addressing a function by Gujjar Desh Charitable Trust here, the former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister said a person should not try to hide his background from the world.

I, myself, had come from a village and I am proud of being a villager. I admire a lot of things about leaders like our prime minister who also says that he was from a village. He used to sell tea.

"I might have political differences with Modi but he is also frank about his past of being a chaiwala (tea-seller), Azad said.

The remarks come a day after Azad and other 'G-23' dissident leaders, who have been pressing for a leadership change and organisational overhaul in the Congress, gathered on one stage here and said the party is weakening.

The content and tenor of the discourse made it clear that they were not happy with the state of affairs in the party even as nobody spoke against Sonia Gandhi or Rahul Gandhi directly. While Kapil Sibal said they had assembled here because Congress was weakening, Anand Sharma declared they were the true Congress. Sharma said, “We have risen from the student movement; we have not given the right to anybody to tell us whether we are Congressmen or not. We know what Congress is and we will rebuild the Congress.”

Modi had recently profusely praised Azad, who was the Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha, during the Congress MP's farewell in the Upper House.

An emotional prime minister had recalled how Azad had reached out to him in 2006 after tourists from Gujarat were killed in a terrorist attack.

He said the person who will replace Azad will find it tough to match his contribution.