New Delhi, Oct 17 (IANS): With Bihar elections heating up, the war of words between the Congress and the BJP too has spiked. BJP President JP Nadda, on late Friday night, hit out at the top Congress leadership for their recent statements ranging from Pakistan's Covid handling to call for the reinstatement of Article 370.

"Since Congress has no good governance agenda to talk about, they are back to their 'Divide India' dirty tricks before Bihar elections. Shri Rahul Gandhi praises Pakistan and Shri Chidambaram says Congress wants Article 370 to return! Shameful!," Nadda tweeted.

This counter-attack comes in the wake of the Congress seemingly handing over issues to the BJP on a platter, just ahead of the assembly election. Earlier, senior Congress leader P Chidambaram said, "The Congress also resolutely stands for the restoration of the status and rights of the people of J&K. The arbitrary and unconstitutional decisions of the Modi government of August 5, 2019 must be rescinded."

Nadda's comment on 'praising Pakistan' was a reference to a tweet by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi where he posted a GDP growth chart saying, "Another solid achievement by the BJP government. Even Pakistan and Afghanistan handled Covid better than India."

Both these issues are likely to be used by the BJP in the coming days against the Congress, during its campaign in the poll-bound state.

The 243-member Bihar Assembly will go to the polls in three phases -- on October 28, November 3 and 7 -- and the results will be announced on November 10.