Former chief minister Siddaramaiah has sparked a controversy saying that he was “scared of people who sport long kumkum or ash tilaks”.

The senior Congress leader made this comment in Badami, a video of which has gone viral.In the video, Siddaramaiah was heard saying to a contractor, “You are wearing kumkum, will you do the work properly? I am scared of people who sport such tilaks. You have to do the work properly and finish it on time.”

The remark drew widespread criticism on social media with #SelfieWithTilak trending on Twitter. Netizens and several BJP leaders took to Twitter to call out Siddaramaiah for his comments and shared photos of themselves sporting tilaks. Some even shared photos of Siddaramaiah and Congress president Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi sporting long tilaks, in response to the comment.