PM aspirant Modi's marital status triggers questions from rivals during Indian elections

India's governing Congress party wants the Hindu nationalist opposition's prime ministerial candidate prosecuted for filing "false affidavits" in the past concealing that he is married.

Law Minister Kapil Sibal said Friday the Election Commission has promised to examine the matter.

Narendra Modi, the top elected official of western Gujarat state, informed the commission earlier this week that he was married.

In four previous registrations between 2002 and 2012, he left the question of his marital status blank, Sibal said. Modi has never explained the difference.

Indians are voting in phases for national elections that run until May 12.

Sibal says Modi must have realized "he can no longer withhold that fact" from Indians.