Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge accused the ruling BJP of intimidating polling agents of the opposition parties and stopping them from filing nominations.
Addressing the press in Lucknow on Wednesday along with the Samajwadi Party chief, Kharge raised objections to how elections are being conducted in the country.
"We all should work together to protect the future, democracy, and the constitution of the country otherwise we will become slaves again. If there won't be a democracy but autocracy and dictatorship, how will you elect someone with your ideology? Wherever any big leader of the BJP is contesting, opposition party leaders are being stopped from filing nominations."
He also expressed concerns over how BJP's Hyderabad nominee Madhavi Latha was checking the identities of burqa-clad women.
"I have seen in Hyderabad that one woman candidate of BJP was checking women's identities by removing the burqa. Is this how free and fair elections are conducted."