Bhopal | Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said some people are hellbent to sully his image and they have given a "supari" (contract) for this purpose colluding with certain people sitting in India and also outside the country.

Modi's veiled attack on Congress comes amid a slugfest between the Grand Old Party and BJP over Rahul Gandhi's "democracy under brutal attack in India" remarks in the UK and Germany taking note of Rahul's disqualification from Lok Sabha. The BJP has accused the Congress of "inviting foreign powers" for interfering in India's internal matters.

The prime minister was addressing a gathering at Rani Kamalapati railway station after flagging off the semi-high-speed Bhopal-Delhi Vande Bharat Express train.

"There are some people in our country who have been determined since 2014, spoken publicly and declared their resolve that they will tarnish Modi's image. For this, they have given 'supari' (contract) to various people.

"Some people are sitting inside the country to support these people and some are doing their work sitting outside the country. These people have been continuously trying to spoil and tarnish Modi's image," he said.

But India's poor, the middle class, tribals, Dalits, backward classes and every Indian has become the security cover of Modi, which made these people furious forcing them to adopt new tricks, he said.

Modi said such people have taken a pledge that "Modi Teri Kabra Khudegi".

“Amidst their conspiracies, every countryman has to pay attention to the development of the country and pay attention to building the nation,” he said.

Slamming Congress without taking its name, Modi said previous governments were busy with vote bank appeasement whereas his government is busy satisfying people.

"They (the previous governments) considered one family as the first family of the country. They ignored the poor and middle class, and the Railway is a living example of this (ignorance)," he said.

The prime minister also expressed deep grief over the stepwell roof collapse tragedy in a temple in Indore which killed 36 people and injured 16 on Ram Navami.

As Germany took note of Rahul Gandhi's disqualification from Lok Sabha, senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh on Thursday thanked the German foreign ministry and Richard Walker, Chief International Editor of Deutsche Welle, for "taking note of how the Democracy is being compromised in India through the persecution of Rahul Gandhi".

Sharing a screenshot of Digivijaya Singh's tweet, Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju had said, "Thank you Rahul Gandhi for inviting foreign powers for interference into India's internal matters. Remember, Indian Judiciary can't be influenced by foreign interference. India won't tolerate 'foreign influence' anymore because our Prime Minister is:- Shri @narendramodi Ji".