Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday accused the Bharatiya Janata Party of buying MLAs to bring down non-BJP ruled state governments and assume power there, reported The Indian Express. Gandhi is in the state as part of his three-day tour ahead of the Assembly elections scheduled for April 6.

“I know the amount of money that was thrown at MLAs in MP [Madhya Pradesh], Rajasthan, we’re talking massive amounts of money... Today, if the Congress party wants to win an election, the only way to win is if we have 2/3rd majority,” he said at an event in VO Chidambaram College in Tamil Nadu’s Thoothukudi city. “If we win by 10-15 seats, it’s not a win. It’s a loss because BJP comes, buys the people and has its own government.”

The Congress leader said that while laws to prevent MLAs from defecting is a must, a functioning Parliament is needed first. “We should absolutely have laws that don’t allow MLAs to move but first we need a functioning Parliament, we need a judiciary that is not penetrated by the RSS [Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh] and BJP, a press that raises this issue.”

The Congress leader alleged that there has been a systematic attack on the institutions of Lok Sabha, Vidhan Sabha, panchayats, judiciary and a free press.

“Democracy does not die with a bang, it dies slowly,” he said. “I am sad to tell you that democracy is dead in India. It is dead because one organisation, the RSS, has combined with huge finances to penetrate and disturb and destroy our institutional balance.”

The Congress leader also criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the India-China border standoff, reported PTI. Gandhi claimed that Modi was scared of China.

“They [China] know that the prime minister of India cannot stand up to them,” he said. “Mark my words, our land in Depsang, which is the most important land, is not going to come back under this government. The prime minister will not get that land back. He will pretend everything is sorted out, but India is going to lose that territory.”

Gandhi said Modi’s first reaction to the Chinese incursions was that “nobody has come” into India. “That indicated to the Chinese that the prime minister of India is scared of them... they understood it,” he said.

He further alleged that the prime minister was only useful to “two people”, referring to the alleged proximity between Modi and industrialists. “He is extremely useful because those two people are using the prime minister of India to increase their wealth dramatically,” Gandhi alleged. “When the time comes they will throw him like that... he is useless to the poor people. He is very useful to “hum do hamare do”.”

Gandhi also spoke with salt pan workers, where he recalled his party’s poll-time promise of providing Rs 72,000 under the Nyay scheme. He assured to implement it if voted to power.

The Congress leader said it was strange that people consume salt but hardly realise how it is made or the difficulties of salt pan workers. “People don’t even realise there is salt in the vaccine shots they get as you have mentioned...” he added.