Lok Sabha polls 2014: Sashi Tharoor mocks at Narendra Modi's meeting with actors

CHENNAI: Taking a potshot at Narendra Modi over his meetings with film stars in Tamil Nadu, Congress leader and Union Minister Shashi Tharoor today said it only showed there was no Modi wave and the BJP Prime Ministerial candidate was seeking to cash in on the popularity of actors.

"There is not even a Modi ripple. If there is a Modi wave would you need all these people to surround himself? You don't see Sonia Gandhi trying to stand next to Salman Khan, we know what we stand for," he told reporters here.

Referring to Modi calling on superstar Rajnikanth and meeting another popular actor Vijay in the past few days, he charged that the Gujarat Chief Minister was trying to profit from the popularity of prominent men to further his Prime Ministerial ambition.

He described the BJP-led six-party alliance in Tamil Nadu as an "opportunist" combine and claimed it would not last beyond elections, saying the partners had little in common.

He accused BJP of making a "desperate attempt" to get different parties to endorse it.

Answering a query on skull cap vis-a-vis Modi, he said the BJP leader had been seen wearing different kinds of headgear, some even "outlandish", "but the skullcap is one headgear he rejects and it is to send a signal of bigotry and rejection of our Muslim brothers and sisters".

Criticising pollsters for projecting big gains for BJP, he alleged they had done a "conscious undercounting" of Congress support. "They tend to miss out classical Congress voters like vegetable sellers."