Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami on Monday stepped up his attack on the opposition parties, linking Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge’s controversial remark about Prime Minister Narendra Modi to a separate row over SP chief Akhilesh Yadav’s alleged reference to people from the hill state as “infiltrators”.

Dhami challenged the Congress to clarify whether its alliance with the Samajwadi Party (SP) was more important than the “self-respect of Uttarakhand”, turning two controversies involving senior opposition leaders into a broader political attack on the INDIA bloc.

The remarks came a day after Kharge, speaking at an event in Patna on Sunday, responded to an audience member, who appeared to suggest that the PM would never leave office, by saying, “Modi ka baap bhi jayega (Even his father will have to go).”

The exchange prompted a backlash from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) , with senior leaders accusing Kharge of crossing the boundaries of political decorum.…