Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Saturday asked the Bharatiya Janata Party to decide whether it wanted to follow Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s slogan ‘batenge to katenge’ (will be massacred if divided) ) or Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s message “ek hai toh safe”. hai” (We are safe if we are united), accusing the ruling party leaders of making “divisive speeches”.

Addressing a press conference in Nagpur, Maharashtra, where elections are being held, Kharge sought to counter Yogi’s remarks and said several Congress leaders sacrificed their lives to unite the country and any leader working to ensure unity will not adopt such remarks.

The senior Congress leader accused the BJP and its ideological stalwart, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), of instigating people to get votes.

Citing a newspaper report, Kharge said he had read that RSS was in favor of the ‘batenge toh katenge’ slogan raised by the UP CM. “First of all, you decide among yourselves which slogan should be followed – Yogi ji’s or Modi ji’s,” he said, adding, “BJP leaders give incitement speeches, lie and distract people from fundamental issues.”

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Kharge pointed out that many top Congress leaders sacrificed their lives to unite the country and attacked the BJP, saying, “You only divide but blame others. You say “batenge toh katenge”. Those who want the country to remain united will never adopt such divisive slogans.”

The Congress leader also targeted the BJP for misleading people about the record of the Congress-led Karnataka government. He said the party had fulfilled all its election promises in the state and made financial allocations to all projects.

“It is shameful that a Prime Minister is telling such blatant lies and claiming that Karnataka is not implementing promised projects,” Kharge said and challenged Modi to demonstrate how his government has delivered on key promises like recover black money or double farmers’ income.

“In my 60 years of public life, I have never seen a prime minister lie so often and face no consequences,” Kharge added.

The Congress leader said two top leaders from Maharashtra’s Vidarbha region failed to stop the transfer of costly state projects to Gujarat because they were keen to “save their own posts and not “were not concerned about the interest of the people”, indirectly mocking the Union. minister Nitin Gadkari and deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, hailing from Nagpur.

There is an MVA (Maha Vikas Aghadi) wave in Vidarbha, which is electing 62 of the state’s 288 MLAs, he said, expressing confidence that the group comprising the Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT) and the NCP (SP) will win the Assembly elections.

Elections to the 288-member Maharashtra assembly will be held on November 20 and votes will be counted on November 23.