Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday seized on Rahul Gandhi’s comment that “Modi is a mask who works for a shakti” to accuse the INDIA bloc of having declared to “destroy Shakti” whose embodiment was “mothers and sisters”.

Addressing an election rally in Telangana’s Jagtial, Modi did not directly name Rahul but referred to the INDIA rally in Mumbai on Sunday and claimed that the Opposition alliance had declared that their “fight was against Shakti” and that they want to “finish/destroy Shakti”.

“There was an INDI alliance rally in Mumbai on Sunday. They announced their manifesto at the rally. In Mumbai’s Shivaji Park, they said their fight was against ‘Shakti’,” Modi said.

“For me, every mother, every daughter is a form of ‘Shakti’. Meri matao-behno, aapko main Shakti ke roop mein puja karta hoon. Main Bharat Maa ka pujari hoon (My mothers and sisters, I worship you as a manifestation of ‘Shakti’. I am a
devotee of Mother India),” he added.

Addressing the INDIA rally at Shivaji Park, Rahul had said Modi was just a mask and the real battle was against the “shakti” (power) that controlled the system. “Modi is just a face. He is a mask…. His task is to divert attention so that the nation’s wealth is looted,” Rahul had said, hitting out at a few capitalists.

Modi turned this into the INDIA bloc declaring to “finish/destroy Shakti” in their “poll manifesto” and went on to project himself as a saviour of “mothers and sisters”.

“The INDI alliance in its manifesto announced to finish/destroy ‘Shakti’. I accept their challenge. I will sacrifice my life for the security of mothers and sisters,” he said amid chants of “Modi, Modi”.

This is the second time this election season that Modi has latched on to a comment by an Opposition leader to turn it into his election slogan. Early this month, he had seized on RJD leader Lalu Prasad’s “Modi has no family” taunt and coined the slogan “Mera Bharat, Mera Parivar” (My India, My Family). The BJP has come out with a campaign song based on it and Modi uses it in every rally, stressing that “140 crore countrymen were his family”.

Modi raised the “Shakti” issue again in his second rally of the day in Karnataka’s Shivamogga, accusing the Congress of going to any extent to gain power. “On June 4, they (Congress) will get the result of daring Shakti,” he said, urging the voters to vote with the resolve to defeat the Congress on every Lok Sabha seat of
the state.