Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor hit out at Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday morning for the BJP leader’s pure Hindu party remark. Tharoor, in a tweet, said that the statement was a violation of Election Commission guidelines and the Congress will not let the issue rest. “I am surprised that @arunjaitley would say something like this. Asking for votes for a “pure Hindu party” is a violation of ElectionCommission guidelines. I am sure if this story is accurate @INCIndia won’t let it rest,” he posted on Twitter.

This tweet came in response to a jibe from Arun Jaitley on Saturday where the Bharatiya Janata Party leader had said that BJP has always been a pro-Hindutva party. “The BJP has always been seen as a pro-Hindutva party. So if an original is available, why one would prefer a clone?” Jaitley, in a press briefing, responded to a poser on Rahul Gandhi’s temple visits during elections. In the run-up to the Assembly elections in Gujarat, the two parties have left no stone unturned in bringing one another down. The Congress Party has been calling Prime Minister Narendra Modia ‘non-Hindu’ and the BJP has been claiming that Rahul is a ‘non-Hindu’.

 He tweeted 

Slamming Congress, Jaitley had said that in the 1990s, reforms were taken under compulsion, but the government under Prime Minister Modi is undertaking the reforms by conviction. “The 10 years of governance before Prime Minister Modi ji’s government was the most corrupt government we have ever seen. It was a leaderless government. It was said that the then prime minister was a prime minister in office, but not in power,” he added.

The Finance Minister pointed out that at one point, foreign investments had stopped in India but today, the nation has come up by 42 positions in the world ranking of Ease of Doing Business. The two-phase Gujarat elections will take place on December 9 and 14, while the results will be out on December 18.