Mangaluru : All India Congress Committee president M. Mallikarjun Kharge on Saturday said that if Prime Minister Narendra Modi is elected to office again, he will become “a dictator” and there will not be any elections thereafter.

Addressing a State-level convention of the Congress leaders and elected representatives here, Mr. Kharge said the Congress was the only party that could protect democracy as enshrined in the Constitution. Mr. Kharge alleged that the Prime Minister wants to control every institution in the country and has been destroying their autonomous status one by one.

He told party cadres to ensure victory of the Congress candidates in the forthcoming elections, otherwise Mr. Modi would grow stronger. He was confident that the party would win 20 seats in Karnataka this time, he said. Upon watching the success of Karnataka government’s five promises, Mr. Modi had begun releasing advertisements on “Modi guarantees”, he chided.

Criticising the Central government for “freezing” the bank accounts of the Congress and the Youth Congress, Mr. Kharge said it was an attempt to completely drown out the Congress. He alleged that BJP got money from electoral bonds from black money holders to whom the Central government returned favours.

Mr. Kharge said the Congress was the party that got Independence for the country and brought all-round development by establishing public sector undertakings in different fields and opening institutes of higher education. The BJP, on the other hand, contributed nothing towards development, instead it was selling all the PSUs. Its promises of employment generation remained hollow, he said.

While the Lok Sabha poll manifesto of the Congress was under preparation, the party had made a promise to provide legal status for minimum support price for farm produce, Mr. Kharge said. He urged party workers to ensure its victory in the LS polls for the development of the country and safeguarding democracy. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar, and other senior leaders were present.