"Instead of telling those voting for Modi to drown, Dr. Abdullah should look at himself & his family in the mirror & see how they ruined J&K;," said Mr Modi, 64, on Twitter today. Mr Abdullah is a union minister and head of the National Conference; his son, Omar, is chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir. At a rally yesterday, Mr Abdullah, 76, said that "Kashmir will not stay with India if it becomes communal." He later said his comments were made in response to BJP leader Giriraj Singh, who had declared at a rally recently that critics of Mr Modi would be sent to Pakistan after the BJP comes to power. Mr Singh faces criminal charges for that remark for allegedly trying to stir communal hatred. Mr Modi is expected to deliver the BJP's strongest-ever electoral performance, though it's not clear yet if the party will land a majority, allowing it to form the government without the need to add to the 25 allies that are already part of its coalition. (India Votes 2014: Full coverage) "Dr. Abdullah, in the history of our glorious culture, if there is someone who has done most harm to secularism it is you and your family," Mr Modi tweeted, adding in another post, "We are secular not because the word was added in our Constitution. Secularism is in our blood." Critics of Mr Modi allege that he did not do enough to stop the riots in his home state of Gujarat in 2002. More than a thousand people were killed, most of them Muslims. A Supreme Court inquiry has said there is no evidence to prove that Mr Modi was complicit in the deadly violence, a point his party and he have stressed in his high-octane campaign for the election

• published: 28 Apr 2014
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