Kolkata: BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi on Wednesday blamed the Gandhi family for twice denying the opportunity to Pranab Mukherjee to be the country's prime minister.

"When Indira Gandhi was assassinated Rajiv Gandhi was in Kolkata and he went back. Under a democracy, that time the senior-most minister in Indira Gandhi's government was Pranab Mukherjee. It would have been good had he been sworn in as the country's prime minister," Modi told a party rally at Brigade Parade grounds here.