The campaign for local body polls is getting murkier in Jammu and Kashmir with the state’s BJP chief on Wednesday equating the Congress with the Lashkar-e-Toiba, claiming the vote for the country’s grand old party would be a vote for the militant outfit.

Ravinder Raina’s remarks came as BJP leaders trumpeted victory, claiming to have won 75 out of 177 wards in the Valley where candidates have won unopposed. “Vote for the Congress means a vote for Lashkar, vote for terrorism. Vote for the Congress means a vote for traitors,” Raina said in Jammu.

The state is headed for four-phase municipal polls from October 8. Key regional players National Conference and the PDP have decided to stay away while the separatists have called for a boycott of the polls, being held after 13 years.

Around two-thirds of the 624 wards in the Valley have either failed to get a candidate or have been won unopposed, although Jammu is witnessing a high-pitched campaign.

State Congress vice-president Ghulam Nabi Monga said the BJP was “making a fool of themselves”.