Mumbai, Nov 8 (IANS): The Maharashtra Congress on Friday hit back at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his remarks in an election rally that "the Congress is finished", and pointed out that the Bharatiya Janata Party at the Centre is riding on the backs of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar (JD-U) and his Andhra Pradesh counterpart N. Chandrababu Naidu (TDP).

Maharashtra unit Congress president Nana Patole said that PM Modi’s contention that the Congress is no longer a national party but taking the yoke of other parties in every state, is 'childish and ridiculous' given the ground realities of the BJP itself.

"Modi government is standing on the back of Chandrababu Naidu and Nitish Kumar at the Centre…Isn’t the PM aware that the original Shiv Sena founded by Balasaheb Thackeray and the Nationalist Congress Party formed by Sharad Pawar were broken up in Maharashtra and the BJP formed a government here on their humps?" questioned Patole.

Taking a swipe, he said that according to PM Modi, the Congress is over but still he chanted the Congress' name 'at least 50 times' in his speech, countering: "It is not the Congress but the BJP which is relying on crutches to remain in power."

Patole flayed PM Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah for seeking votes in the name of caste-religion, contending that "they are already feeling defeated even before the November 20 Assembly elections".

"It is the BJP which is based on the culture of caste-religion... it has committed the sin of inciting caste-religion politics during elections, so now the PM should not blame the Congress for all this,” said Patole sharply.

He reiterated that the people of Maharashtra will no longer tolerate the BJP’s attempts to foment caste-religion conflicts in the holy land of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj.

“When the Congress is fighting to save democracy and Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi is working to preserve the Constitution of India, the BJP is comparing them with ‘Urban Naxalites’, and thereby insulting the Chief Architect of the Constitution Dr. B. R. Ambedkar,” Patole said.

On PM Modi's accusations that the Congress created caste conflicts and deprived OBCs of reservations, the state Congress chief emphatically stated that on the contrary, “it was the BJP which strongly opposed the implementation of the B.P. Mandal Commission Report (1990) that gave OBC reservations” (August 1990).

Patole slammed the BJP for not only creating caste-divides among the Marathas, OBCs, Dhangars, Tribals, Halba and others, but also ending job reservations by selling off government companies, and depriving quotas for SC, ST, OBCs by direct appointments of RSS-linked persons to top executive posts in the government without appearing for the UPSC examinations.

“Instead of doing something for the Dalits, tribals, minorities and other sections of society, the BJP is now trying to create a scare and upheavals by raising slogans like ‘batenge to katenga’, but the people of the state will no longer fall prey to such tactics,” the Congress leader said.

Coinciding with PM Modi’s rallies in the state on Friday, the Congress launched a new ad campaign 'Aata Chalnaar Nahi' (Will Not Tolerate), highlighting how "the ruling MahaYuti government has allowed all major projects to flee from Maharashtra to Gujarat, losing investments of more than Rs 7 lakh-crore and over five-lakh jobs opportunities to the youth here".