Khargone, Madhya Pradesh:

Launching a sharp attack on the Congress party, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that it is time for voters to decide if ‘vote jihad will work or Ram Rajya’.

“India is at a turning point in history; you have to decide if vote jihad will work or Ram Rajya,” PM Modi said at a public meeting on Tuesday.

“Terrorists in Pakistan are threatening of jihad against India. And here, those in Congress have also announced for vote jihad against Modi, which means people of a particular religion are being asked to vote unitedly against Modi. Imagine what level the Congress has stooped to. Do you agree with Vote Jihad? In a democracy, can it be done? Does our constitution allow this kind of Jihad?” he asserted.

The development comes after Maria Alam, a Samajwadi Party leader and the niece of senior Congress leader and former external affairs minister Salman Khurshid, asked the Muslims to do ‘vote jihad’ in order to defeat the BJP. Alam’s remark created a huge controversy with BJP leaders accusing the INDIA bloc for the statement by the SP leader.

Alam remarked on April 30, while seeking votes for the INDIA bloc’s candidate in the Farrukhabad constituency in Uttar Pradesh. She was later booked for this speech. As per the FIR, Maria Alam Khan allegedly asked the minority community to go for “vote jihad.”

On Tuesday, addressing the public meeting in Beed, Maharashtra, PM Modi also attacked Congress and the INDIA bloc over the reservation row in Karnataka. He also criticized former Bihar Chief Minister and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav over his remarks on the reservation.

“In Karnataka, where OBC had 27 per cent reservation, the Congress government brought a ‘fatwah’, an order and overnight declared all the Muslims in Karnataka as OBC. What BR Ambedkar, the Constitution, the parliament granted 27 per cent reservations to OBC, by putting Muslims in the category of OBC, overnight, they (Congress) looted what was there for the OBC…now, they want to do the same thing across the country,” the Prime Minister said.

“Today, a leader of INDI alliance has himself accepted their conspiracy. He is the same who was convicted by the Court in ‘fodder scam’. The leader of the INDI alliance has accepted that ‘ye log Musalmaanon ko pura ka pura aarakshan dena chahte hain’ (They want to give the whole reservation to Muslims). It means they want to snatch the whole reservation given to SC, ST and OBC and give it to Muslims. This is a danger sign for tribals, backwards and Dalits,” he further added.

Earlier in the day, former Bihar Chief Minister Lalu Yadav called for a Muslim quota in the reservation.

“Muslims should get a reservation (Reservation toh milna chahiye Musalmano ko, pura),” he told ANI.

However, later the RJD supremo backtracked and said that reservation is given based on social backwardness and not based on religion.

“I implemented the ‘Mandal Commission’. Reservation samajik adhar par hota hai dharmik aadhar par nahi hota hai (it is based on social backwardness and not based on religion). Atal Bihari Vajpayee constituted the Constitution Review Commission,” he said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)