Jaipur, May 3 (IANS): With days to go before Karnataka goes to the polls on May 10 and with elections scheduled in Rajasthan later this year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi targeted the Congress government in the desert state while addressing a public meeting at Mudbidri in south Karnataka.

Addressing a large gathering, the Prime Minister said: "Congress protects the masters of terror in Rajasthan and also indulges in appeasement politics," a veiled reference to the Rajasthan High Court on March 29 overturning the death sentence given to four accused in the 2008 Jaipur serial bomb blasts case, acquitting them of all charges.

Modi added that there were serial bomb blasts in Rajasthan a few years back that killed many people.

"You can imagine how terrible the conspiracy must have been. However, the police under the Congress government there did such a thing that all the culprits were released from jail after being declared innocent. No one was punished. This policy of appeasement is the only identity of the Congress. Will you allow such a party to come to power in Karnataka?"

The serial blasts that rocked Jaipur in 2008 killed over 70 people while over 185 people were injured. On March 29, the Rajasthan High Court acquitted all the accused in the case. Soon after, the Rajasthan BJP termed it as negligence on the part of the Congress government.

Meanwhile, OSD to Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, Lokesh Sharma, said, "Perhaps the Prime Minister is not aware, nor is the MP from Jaipur, that the death sentence was given to the culprits of the serial blasts during the Congress regime. When the blasts took place, there was a BJP government in Rajasthan. In Karnataka's lost game, even baseless talks by dragging the name of Rajasthan will not be of any help."