Raising the political heat in Telangana ahead of Lok Sabha elections, Congress leader and former MP Vijayashanti made a hugely controversial statement while attacking Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“Every person is scared of which bomb Modi will drop at which minute. He looks like a terrorist. Instead of loving people, he is scaring people. It’s not the way how a PM should be,” she said while addressing a public meeting in Shamshabad, which was attended by party chief Rahul Gandhi.

The remark drew sharp reaction on social media with Bharataiya Janata Party taking a dig at the rival for "raising concerns for terrorists in Pakistan".

Vijayashanti​ further slammed the PM for "ruled like a dictator" during his tenure. "He wants to rule like that in the next five years, but people will not give him that opportunity," the former MP said in Telugu.​

Once a Telangana Rashtriya Samiti (TRS) leader, Vijayashanti​ was suspended from the party for indulging in "anti-party activities", following which she joined Congress in February 2014.

She was an MLA from Medak seat till 2014, following which TRS chief and CM K Chandrashekar Rao won but later resigned, which necessitated the by-election. It is then that the popular south Indian actress of yesteryears fought on a Congress ticket and lost to TRS's Kotha Prabhakar Reddy.