Prime Minister Narendra Modi at an election rally in Maharashtra on Monday likened the Congress to "bitter gourd" after accusing it of preparing an election manifesto inspired by the "divisive" Muslim League.

"There is a saying in Marathi that even if you fry it in ghee or mix it with sugar, bitter gourd continues to taste bitter. This holds true for the Congress. It's because of its misdeeds the party has lost support and hence the Congress has openly started the game of divide and rule,” Modi said at the election rally in Maharashtra’s Chandrapur.

"The language of the Muslim League has been written in the manifesto issued by the Congress. Their MPs are talking about another partition of India, threatening to separate south India,” he said.

BJP president J.P. Nadda echoed Modi, saying the Congress is "pursuing appeasement politics and working against the majority community". He sought clarification from the party on who it intends to benefit by promising to raise the 50 per cent cap on reservation.

The BJP has been repeatedly taking potshots at the Congress and the INDIA bloc, calling the Opposition parties "anti-Sanatan Dharma", but the Muslim League charge is the new arrow in the ruling party's quiver, used to paint the principal opponent as "anti-national".

The Prime Minister has been repeating the Muslim League charge against the Congress in all his election rallies without clarifying what in the Congress’s election manifesto prompted such a barb. Nadda, however, sought to twist the pitch for breaching the 50 per cent cap on reservations in the Congress manifesto to question the party’s intentions.

"The Muslim League had worked for reservation on religious lines in 1929 and the Congress is doing the same in their lust for power…. Today, the way reservation is being sought for minorities in the name of religion, who does it intend to benefit with such a demand to raise reservations beyond 50 per cent?” Nadda asked in a statement, seeking clarification from the Congress.

There is, however, nothing in the Congress manifesto that talks about the party’s promise for reservation based on religion, as Nadda has accused.

"The Congress guarantees that it will pass a constitutional amendment to raise the 50 per cent cap on reservations for SC, ST, and OBC,” the Congress stated in its manifesto, promising to conduct a countrywide socio-economic and caste census to "strengthen the agenda of affirmative action", with no mention of reservation for Muslims.

Modi on Monday addressed rallies in Chhattisgarh’s Bastar and Maharashtra’s Chandrapur and at both the venues he went all out against the Congress, holding the party responsible for all the problems in the country.

“The Congress is the source of all problems in the country. Who was responsible for the Partition of the country on the basis of religion... Kashmir (issue), Naxalism? Who opposed Ram temple construction and questioned the existence of Lord Ram? Who declined the Ram temple (inauguration) invite?” he asked the crowd in Chandrapur.

He added that this election was between "stability and instability".