Lucknow, Oct 8 (NIE): BJP member of parliament from Uttar Pradesh’s Unnao Sakshi Maharaj on Sunday chose to target Congress president Rahul Gandhi on his food habits, called his family a “family of thieves” and challenged him to fight the Lok Sabha elections from his turf.

He also said that devotees of Lord Shiva and Lord Ram needed “purity” in their hearts and implied that being a non-vegetarian made them “impure”.

The Congress has been trying to portray Rahul as a devotee of Lord Shiva. The Congress chief himself had recently undertaken a pilgrimage to Manasarovar. The BJP has been targetting him over visits to temples and the pilgrimages calling it a gimmick.

“Shiv bhakt banne ke liye, Ram bhakt banne ke liye shudhata ki avashyakta hai… Aap ja rahe hain Mansarovar, kha rahe hain non-veg… (To be a Shiv bhakt or Ram bhakt, one needs purity. You are going to Mansarovar and then eating non-veg),” Sakshi told reporters in Unnao.

Maintaining that Rahul would not be able to become an MP from anywhere this time, Sakshi issued a challenge to him. “If I lose from Unnao, I will leave politics and if Rahul Gandhi loses, then he should leave the country and go to Italy,” he said.

On Rahul’s statement last month in which, referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he had said “desh ka chowkidaar chor hai”, Sakshi attacked the Congress chief’s family.

“Rahul Gandhi ka pura khandan chor hai… Nehru se lekar Rahul Gandhi tak, unke nana ne kya kiya, Indira ne kya kiya… puri ki puri Congress chor hai… (Rahul Gandhi’s family is a family of thieves… from Nehru to Rahul Gandhi, what did his uncle do, what did Indira do… Congress is a party of thieves,” said Sakshi, adding that even Priyanka Gandhi would not be able to do much for him this time.

Being vocal on construction of Ram Temple even in the past, BJP MP claimed that that it was Lord Ram and the temple issue that helped bring BJP to its position today.