Punjab chief-minister and Congress leader Captain Amarinder Singh has strongly condemned Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s remarks likening the Ciongress party to ‘termites’.

“Modi’s remarks are apparently made out of fear of losing the upcoming Assembly polls in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh,” Singh said. It was while speaking at a huge public meeting at Kangra in Himachal Pradesh on Sunday that Modi made his now-famous remarks likening the Congress to ‘termites’ and urged the people to finish it off permanently.

Speaking at political meetings in support of the Congress at the neighbouring Himachal Pradesh, Singh said that if what Modi said was true, the country wouldn’t have been able to achieve the kind of progress it has achieved during the past 70 years since independence. “The BJP is staring at defeat in Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat and Modi has been running here and there unable to digest this truth,” he said.

“Modi’s remarks only reveal the BJP’s desperation as it has sensed that the going may not be to its liking when the States would vote next month. Modi’s efforts to unseat the Congress from power in Himachal Pradesh won’t succeed,” Amarinder asserted.