BHILWARA (RAJASTHAN) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday lashed out at the Congress party for remarks on his caste, saying the party was making such statements as it has run out of issues of development for the people. Attacking the Congress for its alleged casteist remarks, Modi, while addressing an election rally in poll-bound Rajasthan, said issues relating to the people do not bother the party.

"As the elections are approaching, Congress asks for my caste and are curious about my father," he said. When the Indian prime minister visits America and meets the president, they talk about welfare, Modi said. "Does the president ask him his caste before any discussion? The prime minister represents the caste of 125 crore people of India," he said.

Modi also said he was nothing but a workaholic. "I am a workaholic (kaamdaar) who has 125 crore people of the country standing behind him... Have you ever heard that I took a holiday? Have you ever heard that I went somewhere for leisure or was missing for a week? I give an account of each and every decision I take and the work that I do," he said.

Congress leaders have kicked up a controversy recently by first comparing the falling value of the rupee to the advanced age of Modi's mother and then claiming that the father of the prime minister was not someone illustrious. Modi had on Sunday said all of this was done at the behest of Congress chief Rahul Gandhi.

Former Union minister Vilas Muttemwar made a controversial statement at a Congress meeting in Rajasthan on Saturday, saying nobody knew "the name of your (Modi's) father but everyone knows the name of Rahul Gandhi's father".

Before that, Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Raj Babbar had compared the falling value of the rupee to the advanced age of Modi's mother.