Modi calls PM weak, Pranab says PMs not wrestlers

RAIGARH/NEW DELHI: Citing Assam blasts, Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi targeted Prime Minister Manmohan Singh calling him "weak", a remark that drew quick criticism from Congress which said prime ministers are not expected to be "wrestlers."

Modi also got personal while attacking Manmohan Singh asking whether there was a need for a "medical test" to prove his assessment of the prime minister.

"There were three blasts in Assam in a week, the state the prime minister comes from. He is elected from there. He is clearly a weak prime minister. Do we need a medical test or check his blood group before stating the obvious," Modi told an election rally in Raigarh in Chhattisgarh on Tuesday.

Hitting back at Modi, senior Congress leader and external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee said in Delhi prime ministers are not expected to be wrestlers but deliver goods.

"Prime ministers are not expected to be wrestlers. A prime minister is expected to deliver goods. For the last five years, Dr Manmohan Singh has provided leadership to a complex coalition," he said.

At the Raigarh rally, Modi said people should elect a "strong" government at the Centre under the leadership of BJP's prime ministerial candidate L K Advani.

Accusing the Congress of indulging in vote-bank politics, he said the Centre could not guarantee the common man a secure environment and sought to know from the Manmohan Singh dispensation what steps it took after the 26/11 Mumbai carnage. He also claimed that terrorists and naxalites have a free run in the country.