Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday called for 'wiping out' the Congress from the country and said if the party remained in any corner of India, poverty will never go.

"Now even the poor people are saying that if the Congress is removed, we will get rid of poverty. If it remains in any corner of the country, poverty will also stay," Modi said during an election rally at Rudrapur in Nainital constituency, as he kicked off the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) poll campaign in the state.