PM Narendra Modi to address three rallies in Himachal Pradesh today

Shimla: Prime Minister Narendra Narendra Modi will be addressing three rallies in the poll-bound Himachal Pradesh on Sunday.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) star campaigner will address three rallies in Una, Palampur and Kullu.

The state will witness elections on November 9. Counting of votes in the Assembly polls would be held on December 18.

At a rally in Kangra, the state's largest and politically key district, PM Modi on Saturday said the Congress has conceded defeat in Himachal Pradesh as its senior leaders have "run away" from campaigning in the state leaving Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh to his fate.

Modi said the Congress' mindset was as harmful to Indian democracy as a termite "is to the wood it comes in contact with it".

"And since this mindset ran down three-four generations into the Congress, it was important that such a party to be uprooted from power. At every polling booth, the Congress should be wiped out as it is like a termite, which is eating away India."

The BJP leader accused the Congress of running away from the battlefield conceding defeat in the 68-member Assembly.

Taking a jibe at the Congress, the Prime Minister said: "I have heard that the Congress has lost the trust of its own leaders and is looking for rebels in other parties."

"Elections are a few days away and senior leaders generally do an intensive campaign in these last few days... It seems Congress leaders have left (Chief Minister) Virbhadra Singh to his fate. It seems they have not only left him to his fate but rather hung him by his fate," he said.

Why such a revenge the Congress is inflicting on him at such an age, Modi said sarcastically. Singh is 83.

After the Prime Minister took a dig at Congress saying no senior leader of the party had come to Himachal Pradesh to campaign, the party announced that Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi will campaign in the state on November 6.