Posts on north-south divide after assembly poll results trigger storm

The SOUTH! Exclaimed Congress leader Karti Chidambaram after his party wrested Telangana even as the BJP won three states decisively.

There were several posts on X that spoke about the North-South divide among voters and triggered a debate. The three states — Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan — won by the BJP are considered part of the Hindi heartland. Telangana, the second Telugu state, was carved out of Andhra Pradesh in 2014.

Congress leader Praveen Chakravarty said on X:”The South-North boundary line getting thicker and clearer.” He later deleted the post.

BJP leader CR Kesavan shared a screenshot of the now-deleted tweet and alleged an attempt by the Congress to divide the country on north-south lines after the failed bid to divide the country on caste lines.

He was apparently referring to the demand for an all-India caste census by the Congress to counter the BJP. The demand came after the results of the caste census was released by Bihar.

“The Dynastic Congress party’s agenda to divide Bharat on caste lines and uproot #SanatanaDharma , has been outrightly rejected by our people. Now their toxic plan is to attack Bharat with North – South divide. In 2024, the Congress will be consigned to the dustbin of history,” said Kesavan.

Congress’s Tehseen Poonawalla warned that indulging in the north-south-divide argument would backfire.

“Warning: The North South divide will BACKFIRE! Don’t indulge in it & reduce the legacy of the Congress, the first Nationalist & the oldest political party of this great nation! Just like people did not like the abuse of Sanatan DHARMA they won’t tolerate the NORTH SOUTH divide!” Poonawalla posted.

Several people, including politicians and journalists, pointed out what they alleged to be a North-South divide in the Assembly poll results.

“Victory for Hindutva and its coalition partner Big Business. Soft Hindutva of Cong fails miserably. North-South divide widens.” posted author-journalist Paranjoy Guha Thakurta.

Veteran journalist and founding editor of a news portal, M K Venu too spoke about the north-south divide and the predicted raids by investigating agencies ahead of the 2024 election.

“North-South divide has become ever sharper with Congress won in Telangana and BJP poised to retain most Hindi states. Now expect ED/IT agencies to be fully deployed in South until Lok Sabha 2024 elections!” posted MK Venu.

There were several other handles that spoke about the “clear north-south divide”.

Everyone who spoke about the north-south divide faced massive criticism and backlash.

“There is no South and North India, West or East India. There is just Bharat and its people who are Bharatiya,” said journalist-author Savio Rodrigues.

Political expert Yashwant Deshmukh rubbished the north-south argument, saying the BJP was a strong player in Karnataka and was likely to win big there in the 2024 Lok Sabha election.

“This North-South divide theory doing the rounds is big bullshit. BJP was a key player only in Karnataka so far, and they are likely to win that state again in LS 2024. Same is true about Congress in Kerala. Yes they have won Telangana today, but they are a big zero as far as Andhra and TN are concerned, just like BJP,” argued Deshmukh.

“The fact is that all Southern regional players are on their own strength, not because they are anti-BJP or anti-Congress. Just like the Northern regional players,” he added.