New Delhi, Jul 30 (IANS): Congress leader Anil Shastri Monday said Congress leaders were making the party's prospects in Gujarat weaker in an election year with their controversial comments.

The veteran Congressman and working committee member, who is the son of former prime minister Lal Bahadur Shastri, in his comments on micro blogging site Twitter, slammed Congress leaders Shankersinh Vaghela and Vijay Darda for making the situation bad for the party in Gujarat.

"Gujarat is going to polls this year end & things are being made difficult for Congress by its own leaders. First was Vaghela and now is Darda," Shastri tweeted.

"How will Congress workers in Gujarat ask people not to vote for Modi after he being hailed as 'Tiger of Gujarat' by a Congress MP?" Shastri said.

Darda, a Congress MP from Maharashtra, praised Modi's style of working and referred to him as a lion at an award ceremony in Ahmedabad. He however retracted his statement, but the central leadership of the party has been upset and asked Gujarat incharge Mohan Prakash for a report.

Earlier, senior Congress leader and former Gujarat chief minister Vaghela had raked a controversy after he reportedly told a gathering that the Congress relied on Muslim votes to win.

Gujarat will go for assembly elections towards the end of this year and Congress is making a deperate attempt to come back in the state. Congress was last in power in the state in 1995.

The Bharatiya Janata Party formed a government in 1995-96, followed by Vaghela-led Rashtriya Janata Party government from October 1996 to March 1998.

The BJP is ruling Gujarat since March 1998.