Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah taunted Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath following the Bharatiya Janata Party’s defeat in the bypolls in the state on Wednesday.
In a tweet from his official Twitter handle, the 69-year-old Congress leader congratulated both Samajwadi Party (SP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) for the “historic victory” in Uttar Pradesh.
“BJP has suffered humiliating loss in the Lok Sabha seats held by the CM & DyCM of UP. Congratulations to SP & BSP for this historic victory. Unity among the non-BJP parties has played a key role,” he wrote.
“Perhaps Yogi Adityanath should spend less time lecturing Karnataka on development,” Siddaramaiah said referring to the two visits by the UP CM for BJP’s campaign in his state.
BJP has suffered humiliating loss in the Lok Sabha seats held by the CM & DyCM of UP. Congratulations to SP & BSP for this historic victory. Unity among the non-BJP parties has played a key role.
Perhaps Yogi Adityanath should spend less time lecturing Karnataka on development.
— Siddaramaiah (@siddaramaiah) March 14, 2018
There has been a sharp escalation in the exchange of accusations and barbs between the Congress and the BJP as the southern state heads to polls in April/May.
Adityanath and Siddarmaiah had a verbal spat on Twitter in January this year during the former’s visit. Siddarmaiah had asked the UP CM to “learn” from the policies of his government to address the “starvation deaths” in Uttar Pradesh.
In response, Adityanath had raised the farmer suicide issue in Karnataka.
On Wednesday, the BJP lost all three Lok Sabha seats it contested in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
Samajwadi Party’s Pravin Nishad defeated BJP’s Upendra Dutt Shukla in Gorakhpur, the seat which was with the party since 1989. Yogi Adityanath was a five time MP from the constituency before become the Chief Minister.
Nagendra Pratap Singh Patel of SP clinched the Phulpur seat, which was the parliamentary seat of Keshav Prasad Maurya before he vacated it to become deputy Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh.
In Bihar, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) retained the Araria Lok Sabha seat where its nominee Sarfaraz Alam beat BJP’s Pradeep Kumar Singh by over 60,000 votes.