Kevadia,Nov 1 (ANI): Indian opposition leader Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone of the world's tallest statue on Thursday at a cost of almost $340 million in honor of one of the country's founding fathers, a project he is using to undermine his chief rivals, the Gandhi-Nehru political dynasty. The statue of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, who was first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru's deputy and his interior minister but often at odds with him, is to be built on a river island in Gujarat, the home state of both Patel and Modi. The statue, twice the size of the Statue of Liberty, is seen as a not-so-subtle bid by Modi and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to appropriate an independence-era hero associated with the ruling Congress party that has largely been run by the Nehru-Gandhi family. However, the Gujarat strongman added that the statue would add to the glory and grandeur of India and connect the country.