Describing Gandhi's alleged act of omission as "sad", Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani tweeted: "When entire nation is bowing to the great Sardar Patel on his Jayanti, sad but not surprising to see Congress President Sonia Gandhi & Mr. Rahul Gandhi not having even basic courtesy of paying tribute to the great stalwart! Such contempt for a national icon is beyond belief!"
BJP's IT cell chief Amit Malviya too took potshots at the Congress leader for his muted response on Patel's birth anniversary. He tweeted: It is a crying shame that Rahul Gandhi doesn't have the time to pay tribute to Sardar Patel, the man who unified India, let alone praise him. It is no surprise that the Nehru-Gandhi family sought to obliterate legacy of several stalwarts who had a seminal role in building India."
The truth, however, is that Gandhi did post a tribute message to Patel, not on Twitter, where he remembered his grandmother Indira Gandhi on her death anniversary, but instead on Facebook.
On being queried on this, Malviya described Gandhi's message as a "facesaver move".
Malviya told : "After my tweet sparked widespread condemnation for Gandhi, he quiety posted a tribute message in Facebook because he had no face to do it on Twitter. His ego would have been bruised had he posted on Twitter".
This October 31, which started with a legacy war between the two major parties as the day is both the birth anniversary of Patel and the death anniversary of Indira Gandhi, continued to be marked by exchange of political attacks throughout Thursday.
( With inputs from IANS )