Vijayapura (Karnataka), May 8: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday took a dig at the Congress, claiming that its leaders were now saying that if former party chief Sonia Gandhi canvasses in the state, it can at least save the security deposits of Congress candidates.

Modi said he had on Monday watched an interview of a Congress leader who said that the son (Congress President Rahul Gandhi) "will not be able to do anything".

"If you bring the mother (Sonia) to Karnataka and she does something, then maybe the deposits can be saved. This is what Congress leaders have started speaking," Modi said at a rally here.

His remarks came on a day Sonia Gandhi is scheduled to address a rally at Bijaypur, her first election rally in nearly two years.

Modi also accused the state's Congress government of trying to gain votes by seeking to divide communities.  He claimed the Congress was spreading lies on the issue of women's security and said that a daughter is a daughter irrespective of the community she belongs to.

The Prime Minister also accused the Congress of not supporting the triple talaq bill in the Rajya Sabha.

Modi said the Bharatiya Janata Party was seeking votes in the name of development but the Congress was in such a position that their leaders did not have faith in their 'naamdar' (dynast) leader.

Modi referred to Vijayapura as the birthplace of Lord Basaveshwara, a 12th-century social reformer and philosopher who founded the Lingayat religious tradition and targeted Karnataka's Siddaramaiah government over its move to recommend minority community status for the Lingayats in the southern state.

He said Lord Basaveshwara's message was against divisions of caste and community but the state government had got into a habit of working against his message and of forgetting his words.

"Bhagwan Basaveshwara conveyed that everyone should be taken along. This Congress government is dividing communities, castes, voters... divide and rule, pit one against the other. They want to save their chair. But Congress leaders do not know this is the land of Bhagwan Basaveshwara. It is not going to be divided into communities and will not accept division among brothers. They will remove the Congress but will not allow poison of casteism," Modi said.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on May 08, 2018 04:31 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).