Returning the compliment: Rahul roadshow in Varanasi on May 10

Modi's rally in Amethi also came on the last day of campaigning for the eighth phase of polling and was an attempt to give a push to the BJP candidate's poll prospects in the pocketborugh of Gandhi family at a time when Congress is facing difficult election nationwide, particularly in central and eastern UP.

Gandhi's road show in Varanasi is being seen as a way of getting back at Modi who had broken the unwritten code that no top political leader campaigns in the political backyard of a top rival.

At the AICC briefing, party spokesman Shashi Tharoor said “we do not have any official word on it” but added it is natural that Gandhi would like to be active in the final phase.