Former Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Thursday warned members of the Dalit and minority communities and the Other Backward Classes against voting for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whom he described as the “second Hitler”, PTI reported. The Congress leader was addressing a public meeting in Chikkamagaluru.

Siddaramaiah claimed that autocracy will replace democracy if the Bharatiya Janata Party is voted back to power. “I beg you with folded hands that this time you have to defeat the BJP,” Siddaramaiah said. “If Narendra Modi comes back again, elections will not take place. Downtrodden communities, backward communities and minorities will be ruined.”

The Congress leader was in Kaduru to campaign for former Prime Minister HD Devegowda’s grandson Prajwal Revanna. The Congress and Devegowda’s Janata Dal (Secular) are in an alliance in Karnataka.

Siddaramaiah claimed that Modi asked people to sell pakodas, or fritters, when they asked him for jobs. “He [Narendra Modi] will be the second Hitler,” Siddaramaiah said.

His comment follows statements by Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee who on Wednesday used dictator Adolf Hitler’s reference when speaking about Modi.

Kumaraswamy had said Modi was “worse than Hitler”. The Karnataka chief minister was reportedly upset over Income Tax raids against his party leaders, PTI reported. “He is the worst prime minister who brought a bill to confiscate the personal properties of individuals,” Kumaraswamy had said.

On Wednesday, Banerjee called Modi the “king of fascists” and claimed that Hitler would have committed suicide if he witnessed Modi’s activities.