The Congress and the BJP on Monday lodged complaints with the Election Commission against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Sonia Gandhi, respectively, after Modi insinuated that the Gandhi family “sees Karnataka as separate from Bharat”.

At the root of the dispute lay a Congress tweet that mentioned the “sovereignty” of Karnataka.

“CPP Chairperson Smt. Sonia Gandhi ji sends a strong message to 6.5 crore Kannadigas: The Congress will not allow anyone to pose a threat to Karnataka’s reputation, sovereignty or integrity,” the Congress had tweeted on Saturday night after Sonia’s campaign speech in Hubli.

Modi, who addressed a rally at Nanjangud near Mysore on Sunday, was quoted as referring to the word “sovereignty” in the tweet to allege that the “shahi parivar” (royal family) of the Congress “sees Karnataka as separate from Bharat”.

Members of the Congress legal cell filed a complaint against Modi with the poll panel on Monday afternoon, accusing him of making a “false, baseless, frivolous allegation” and seeking a police case against him for “assertions prejudicial to national integration”.

Hours earlier, Shobha Karandlaje, convener of the BJP election management committee, had cited the tweet to lodge a complaint against Sonia for “insulting the patriotism of crores of Kannadigas”.

She sought stringent action, including a police case against her.

A video clip of Modi’s speech, tweeted by PTI, shows the Prime Minister purportedly saying: “What I am going to say — and it’s not just Karnataka’s matter — I want to tell the whole of India with a lot of pain....

“In this election the Congress’s shahi parivar said in Karnataka yesterday that they want to protect the sovereignty of Karnataka. Karnataka’s ‘sovereignty’, do you know what this means?

“The meaning of what the Congress is saying is it sees Karnataka as separate from Bharat.”

The Congress complaint said: “Sri Narendra Modi, as star campaigner of the BJP, (is) making this false, baseless, frivolous allegation only to solicit votes for his party.”

The Congress urged the chief election commissioner to direct the police to register a case against Modi for “assertions prejudicial to national integration....”