Congress leader Vijayashanti on Saturday stirred controversy after she compared Prime Minister Narendra Modi to a terrorist and claimed he was “ruling like a dictator”. She made these comments at a rally in Telangana’s Shamshabad village in Ranga Reddy district which was also attended by Congress President Rahul Gandhi.

The Congress leader said Modi was “scaring people” using matters like demonetisation, Goods and Services Tax, black money stashed in banks and the Pulwama terror attack, PTI reported. Therefore, people should vote carefully in the polls, she added.

“Every person is scared of which bomb Modi will drop at which minute,” actor-turned-politician Vijayashanti said, according to NDTV. “He is appearing like a terrorist. Instead of loving his people, he is scaring them. This is not a characteristic of a prime minister.”

She claimed that the upcoming Lok Sabha elections will be a battle between Modi and Gandhi. Modi has ruled like a dictator during his tenure, she said, adding that Gandhi was fighting for the “survival of democracy”. “He [Modi] wants to rule like that in the next five years, but people will not give him that opportunity,” Vijayashanti added.

She also hit out at Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, accusing him of trying to “purchase” Congress MLAs in the state. Three Congress MLAs have so far announced their decision to join the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi.

The Bharatiya Janata Party, in a tweet, responded to the Congress, saying the Opposition party was only worrying the terrorists in Pakistan.

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