"Bless Your Son Even If You Don't Vote For Him": Rajnath Singh To AK Antony

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, in a message to the country's longest-serving Defence Minister AK Antony, said he can understand his predicament.

Rajnath Singh was addressing an election rally for the BJP candidate and AK Antony's son, Anil Antony, in Kanjirapally that falls under the Pathanamthitta Lok Sabha constituency. Anil Antony is pitted against three-time sitting Congress MP Anto Antony and former finance minister and CPM's pick Thomas Isaac.

"All I have to tell Mr Antony is: even if he might not vote for him, he should bless him as a father. I was surprised by what he said. Maybe he said so because of pressure from Congress," Mr Singh said.

AK Antony broke his silence early this month over his son joining the BJP and said Anil Antony should and will lose from Pathanamthitta and that it was wrong for children of Congress leaders to join the BJP.

"I have the highest regard for AK Antony and I see him as my elder brother. As a minister, Mr Antony was a clean person, while other Congress leaders are not like that," Mr Singh added.

"Anil Antony has a bright future in the BJP," he said as he took a dig at Rahul Gandhi saying that even as the Chandrayan mission has been a success, the "Rahul-yaan" mission, even after two decades, has not reached anywhere.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)