Digvijaya Singh backs Mamata as Modi, TMC spar

New Delhi: Congress General Secretary Digvijaya Singh on Monday backed erstwhile UPA ally Mamata Banerjee as Narendra Modi and Trinamool Congress sniped at each other with the latter calling the BJP's prime ministerial candidate "butcher of Gujarat".

"Nothing new about Modi tactic of making baseless allegations and cheap pot-shots. Mamata is his latest victim, we are so used to his crudity!," Singh tweeted.

Singh's remarks came a day after Mamata's party heaped scorn on Modi in an angry retaliation to his no-holds barred attack on her.

"Butcher of Gujarat air-dropped into Bengal. He has no answers to Bengal's development model. So, making personal attacks," TMC Spokesperson Derek O"Brien said.

Firing a salvo at Mamata for the second time in the past three weeks after adopting a soft approach two months ago, Modi had raked up the Saradha scam and said he did not expect this from the Trinamool supremo.

"Saradha is the other name of Saraswati, she is worshipped everywhere, and this Saradha turned into a chit fund? Mamataji, we did not expect this from you," he said.

"Personally, I have always respected you. But what have you done, you have broken the dreams of the people of Bengal....So much lust for the chair?....You have imbibed the bad things of both the Left and Congress," Modi said.

Sarcastically lauding Banerjee's talent for painting, he said, "Your paintings used to be sold for Rs 4 lakh, 8 lakh or 15 lakh, but what is the reason that one of your paintings sold for Rs 1.80 crore. I respect art.

"But who was the person who bought the painting for Rs 1.80 crore," he said.

The BJP was earlier hopeful that the Trinamool Congress, which was an ally of NDA during Atal Bihari Vajpayee's prime ministership, could support it this time as well.

Mamata, who had left NDA and later became a part of UPA, walked out of the Congress-led alliance in September 2012.

The second biggest partner in UPA II after Congress, Trinamool had fought elections in West Bengal separately after parting ways with it.

The latest sparring between BJP and Trinamool Congress comes at a time when the Congress has renewed the talk of secular formation in the post-poll scenario to halt BJP's bid to come to power at the Centre.