Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah has slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for seeking votes in Uttar Pradesh by accusing the INDIA bloc parties of abusing the people of the northern state while in south India.

While addressing a rally in Uttar Pradesh, Modi had accused INDIA allies of insulting and abusing the people of the state while they were in southern states.

“The SP-Congress game is dangerous. The method of the shehzadas is dangerous. They are seeking your votes here but they go to south India and insult and abuse the people of Uttar Pradesh. These people abuse Sanatan Dharma. With them are the DMK, the Left in Kerala and the Congress in Karnataka and Telangana,” Modi had said.

“When those people abuse the people of UP, the SP-Congress inserts cotton in their ears. Will you forgive the INDI alliance that abused the people of UP? Will you forgive those who abuse the people of Uttar Pradesh?”

However, the latest ploy to sway the voters of Uttar Pradesh and the rest of the Hindi heartland has not gone down well in the south where Siddaramaiah flayed the Prime Minister for being “ungrateful”.

“Just because the elections in Southern States are over, an ungrateful @PMOIndia is now trying to divide South and North Indians by targeting people from Southern States,” Siddaramaiah said in a statement shared on X.

“We consider Karnataka as the daughter of India. India has never discriminated anyone, but people like Modi spew venom. We have a symbiotic relationship with people from every state and we are proud of that,” he added.

Lavanya Ballal Jain, Congress spokesperson in charge of the party’s communications wing in Kerala, likened Modi’s remarks to the divide-and-rule policy of the British. “The divide-and-rule policy at work. Like the British like the BJP. Birds of the same feather and all,” she posted on X.

Many X users lapped up the issue to argue for and against Modi’s comments on the south.

Ankit Mayank who describes himself as a secular, anti-fascist entrepreneur, commented on X: “Narendra Modi stoops to another low. Only if Hindu-Muslim agenda was not enough, Modi is now creating division between North & South India. This man is really dangerous for the country & doesn’t deserve to be PM even for a second. South India must unite to throw away Modi & BJP for once & all.”

A person named Abdulla Madumoole said: “So Modi confirms here that in TN, Kerala, Karnataka and in Telangana BJP is washed out. South Vs North game now. Nothing will work Mr. Modi.”

However, some recalled the separatist comment made by D.K. Suresh, Congress’s lone Lok Sabha member from Karnataka and the younger brother of deputy chief minister D.K. Shivakumar.

“The statement about North vs South was made by the brother of your Deputy CM and Congress MP. You haven’t issued any statement regarding your own MP, but you have a problem even with what PM Modi hasn’t said. First, handle your own MP, then lecture others,” a person named Mohit Suryavanshi, who goes by the X handle @IMAntiSecular, said in reply to Siddaramiah’s post.

Another person named Karthik Reddy shared an old comment by Karnataka’s IT minister Priyank Kharge who had said no Kannadiga ever says he wants to go to Uttar Pradesh to get employed. “Have you ever heard any Kannadiga say I want to go to Uttar Pradesh for a job?…The Hindi heartland thinks that they can come to South India and earn a livelihood, Nobody from the South thinks they can go to the Hindi heartland and earn a livelihood because of the social infrastructure there.”