Taking another dig at the Congress party and its leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that the “Shehzada” fears defeat in Wayanad which is why he has also been fielded from the Rae Bareli constituency in Uttar Pradesh which will act as an “escape route”.

“I said it before that the ‘Shehzada’ (prince) will be defeated from Wayanad and soon after the elections at Wayanad will be over, he will go in search of a second seat. His followers were claiming that he will fight from Amethi. But, it seems that he is scared of Amethi too. So now the ‘prince’ is trying to find an escape route from Rae Bareli,” PM Modi said while addressing a rally at Burdwan in West Bengal.

The Gandhi family had a long association with Amethi. The Congress has given nomination to its veteran leader Kishorilal Sharma there this year.

“I had already said in the Parliament that their (Congress) biggest leader will not dare to fight elections and she will run away. He hinted at Sonia Gandhi, without naming her. She ran away to Rajasthan and came to the Rajya Sabha. Today, I am also telling them not to be scared. Do not escape,” he added.

Prime Minister Modi launched a scathing attack against Congress and other allies of the opposition INDIA bloc, accusing them of speaking about “vote-jihad” during the ongoing elections.

“The party will win much fewer seats compared to 2019, this year. That’s why they’ve fielded candidates in marginal numbers. Actually, they are not contesting to win the seats, they are out to project their fight for a single vote bank. We are struggling for everyone’s welfare, ‘sabka vikash’,” said the PM.

The Congress had fielded 421 candidates in 2019. Of them, 52 had won. The grand old party of the country has fielded candidates in less than 300 seats so far this year.

The Prime Minister claimed that the Trinamul Congress-ruled West Bengal government wants to make the Hindus second-class citizens in the state.

He said that the TMC has problems with the construction of Ram temple in Ayodhya and Ram Navami processions in Bengal.

“A TMC MLA said yesterday that they will throw the Hindus into Bhagirathi (river). What kind of politics is this? Why have Hindus become second-class citizens in Bengal? In Sandeshkhali, our Dalit sisters faced atrocities but TMC tried to shield the accused Sheikh Shahjahan. The whole country was shaken to the core and there was an outcry for action but the TMC kept protecting the culprit. Was it just because the culprit’s name was Sheikh Shahjahan?” PM Modi questioned.

He added, “The TMC, Left and Congress do not have a vision for development. You know very well what the Left, Congress and TMC can do to a state. Tripura was being ruled by the Leftists. But in the last five years, BJP has changed Tripura. With the Left party gone, the sun of development started rising there.”