Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Monday described the RSS and the BJP as poison. “If you taste poison, you will die. So it’s better to keep away from them,” said Kharge, who was in Bhubaneswar on Monday to address the Odisha Bachhao Samavesh (Save Odisha).

He urged the Congress workers to listen to him carefully instead of raising slogans. “Rahul Gandhi has opened Mohabat Ki Dukan. Rahul Gandhi wants to unite the country. On the other hand, BJP and RSS have opened Nafrat ki Dukan. They want to divide and rule, You need to be alert,” he said.

He also questioned why Prime Minister Narendra Modi has not so far visited Manipur where innocent people were killed and women raped.

Coming down heavily on the Modi government, Kharge said if Narendra Modi comes to power then it would be the last election ever in Indian democracy and cautioned people not to vote for the BJP. “If Modi retains the power after the general election, there will be a dictatorship, no democracy and no election. After this, there will be no voting. They will rule like Putin. If you want to save democracy, you can do it. If you want to be gulam (slaves), it depends on your wish. This is the last chance to save democracy,” Kharge said.

“Modiji and others asked what the Congress government did during the last 70 years. It’s we who protect democracy and Modi became chief minister and later on the Prime Minister. We had protected democracy and enshrined principles of the constitution — liberty equality, fraternity and social justice,” Kharge said.

Stating that the BJP-led government is terrorizing people with the ED and other central government agencies, Kharge said they are intimidating people. Without taking the name of Nitish Kumar, Kharge said: “Because of fear, some people are leaving a friendship, some are leaving the party and some are leaving the INDIA bloc. But it won’t impact the India alliance.”

Targeting the Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik supporting the Narendra Modi government. Kharge said: “Earlier there was Biju Patnaik who supported the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and with these several projects like Rourkela Steel plant, Paradip Port and other big projects came up. But there is a huge difference between Biju Patnaik and Naveen Patnaik.”