Confident that the people will vote for the BJP, its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi on Wednesday said he did not believe in "untouchability" in politics and shared excellent personal relations with political leaders, including Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa.
Asked about Ms. Jayalalithaa's criticism of him when he was in Chennai last Sunday, Mr. Modi said: "We may criticise our political opponents, but at a personal level I share excellent relations with them."
He even talked about his personal equation with Nationalist Congress Party leader Sharad Pawar, who is a political opponent.
"We may differ in ideology but I share excellent personal relations with all of them, including Ms. Jayalalithaa. This is the beauty of our democracy," he said in a freewheeling interview with ANI television network.
In a separate interview to TV9 channel, Mr. Modi rejected the politics of vendetta.
"No government should be vindictive, but the law will take its own course," he said when asked if he would take action against Robert Vadra, Congress president Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law.
