New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday likened the Congress to "termites" and asked the voters of Himachal Pradesh to "uproot" their ruling party and give a three-fourths majority to the BJP.

On Thursday, Modi's vitriolic attack had prompted the poll-bound state's octogenarian chief minister to say he had never before witnessed such conduct by any Prime Minister.

"If you clean just the surface, the termites return after a few days. The Congress's degenerate mentality is like a nest of termites," Modi told a rally in Kangra ahead of the November 9 vote. "A mere change of government will not solve the problem. You have to take them out from the roots. Only then can Himachal be freed of this disease."

He added: "There should not be even one polling booth where this termite called the Congress is allowed to thrive."

Modi tore into the Congress at both the election meetings he addressed in Himachal on Saturday, saying the party had decayed beyond hope of regeneration in the next three to four generations.