Bagalkot: The Congress wants to install a "helpless" prime minister, Narendra Modi said on Thursday, making a forceful plea for people's mandate for a stable government, focusing on national security.

Addressing two rallies in north Karnataka on the final lap of his campaign for Lok Sabha polls in the state, Prime Minister Modi mocked the "never-ending drama" marked by revenge and emotion that he said characterised the Congress-JD(S) coalition government headed by HD Kumaraswamy.

"If you want to see majboot sarkar (strong government) look towards Delhi, and if you want to see majboor (helpless) government look towards Bengaluru," he told the crowd, amid the polling for the first phase of Lok Sabha elections to 14 constituencies in Karnataka.

Aiming big, BJP has set a target of winning 14 of the 28 Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka, betting high on the "Modi wave".

Modi has held back to back rallies covering all the regions in Karnataka and the state BJP has not announced any more rallies before the second phase of polls on April 23.

Speaking about the "Natak" (drama) by leaders that were going in Karnataka, he said the drama had emotion and revenge, and "the emotion is never-ending." 

"After every few days, weeks, at a rally or press conference, emotion is flowing. Do you think of Karnataka like this?" Modi asked the crowd, apparently taking a dig at chief minister Kumaraswamy who has shed tears publicly quite often

"Congress likes such majboor (helpless) governments. They want such majboor chief minister, and they want to install such majboor prime minister," he told the rally in Bagalkot.

Modi said before 2014, no one even used to talk about prime minister, asking "was he able to take the decision, every child in this country knows. The government was run through remote control," a veiled reference to the UPA government headed by Manmohan Singh.

He said Congress had claimed in its manifesto making Pakistan agree that its citizens were involved in the Mumbai terror attack was a significant achievement.

But Pakistan despite agreeing that the perpetrators were its citizens still carried out bomb explosions and even threatened India about the nuclear bomb.

During the then Congress' "majboor" government, Pakistan used to openly say "they are Jihadis do whatever you want and Congress' helpless government used to weep in front of the world.”

Modi took on Kumaraswamy for saying the matter of airstrike on terror camps in Pakistan in Balakot should not be over publicised "fearing the vote bank would get angry."

"Now tell me, where is Congress and the JD(S) vote bank? Is it in Bagalkot or Balakot? This Congress-JD(S) has to decide," the prime minister said.

In the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, BJP had bagged 17 seats in Karnataka.