Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday claimed that while the Opposition was getting together to remove him, he was working hard to remove terrorism. Speaking in Karnataka’s Kalaburagi, he reiterated that the grand alliance, or “mahagathbandhan”, of Opposition parties was a “mahamilavat”, or “adulteration”, PTI reported.

Modi was in Kalaburagi to lay the foundation stone of various projects, after which he met beneficiaries of the Centre’s health insurance scheme and addressed a public meeting. He will travel to Kancheepuram in Tamil Nadu later in the day.

Modi criticised the Karnataka government, which is led by a coalition of the Congress and the Janata Dal (Secular), for its treatment of farmers. “They made false promises of waiving farm loans for all farmers for votes,” Modi said. “They have betrayed innocent farmers.”

In December, Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy had hit out at similar remarks by Modi, and had said that the state’s crop loan waiver scheme was “an open book”. The state government “is handling honest tax payers’ public money with caution to reach true farmers”, ensuring that “every genuine farmer gets the benefit”, Kumaraswamy had claimed.

On Wednesday, Modi referred to Kumaraswamy as a “remote-controlled chief minister”, who had not sent the list of farmers eligible for the income support scheme to the Centre. “They are depriving the farmers of their right,” he said. “They know that there are no middlemen as the money is to be directly credited to farmers’ accounts.”

The Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi, the income scheme, was announced in the Interim Budget on February 1. It proposes to give farmers with land up to two hectares Rs 6,000 per year in their bank accounts in three equal instalments. Around 12 crore farmers are expected to benefit from the scheme.

“Karnataka has a helpless government but I hope you don’t want such a government at the Centre,” said the prime minister. “Sometimes we have to pay a heavy price for a small mistake. The people of Karnataka must be experiencing the same.”