"Our daughters are being attacked, bombs are exploding in markets, people chanting bhajans are being assaulted, these are not common incidents,” Modi said at a public meeting in Bengaluru, referring to the incidents in Hubballi and the state capital.

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Prior to Modi's visit itself, the Congress in the state had been forced to adopt a fire-fighting mode, with the BJP utilising a few incidents involving the Hindus and the Muslims to target them ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.

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The murder of the girl, the daughter of a Congress councillor, by a Muslim youth in Hubballi has been the latest flash point, with the BJP highlighting these incidents ahead of the elections and accusing the Congress of minority appeasement.

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Senior Congress leaders, including Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar and other ministers have been criticised for treading softly on the matter, with the observers pointing out that the party had suffered due to its 'appeasement policy' before the 2019 polls.

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Riding on a series of BJP blunders, the Congress had swept to power in last year's assembly elections but the BJP-JDS combine has politicised a few incidents over the last 10 months to peg back the state government, saying the Congress was neglecting the majority community.

The incidents included the attack on a Hindu shopkeeper in Bengaluru by a group of Muslim youths, allegedly for playing Hanuman Chalisa, the raising of pro-Pakistan slogans inside the Vidhana Soudha, attack on three youths by some Muslims for chanting Jai Sri Ram inside a car, assault on a person accompanying a Kannada actress in Bengaluru by some urchins, and the assault on a youth for showing a video song on PM Modi in Mysore by three to four Muslim youths.

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In the latest case in Hubballi, the Congress did itself no favours with its leaders blaming the girl for allegedly having a love affair with the accused, even before the completion of the police investigation. The BJP-JDS combine pounced on these statements to launch a statewide agitation.

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G Madhusudhan, a former BJP MLC, told Bol India Bol that he did not rule out the possibility of a shift in voting pattern in favour of the BJP after these incidents. "Those who wanted to vote for Congress will change their opinion after this incident. We will not rule out a 2-3 per cent swing in the votes in favour of BJP,” he said.

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A Congress MLC however dismissed the claim and blamed the BJP for politicising every incident. “The BJP has always painted the Congress as pro-minority party just for the sake of votes. The state government has handled all the incidents effectively by giving complete freedom to the cops to deal with the cases. The BJP is creating a drama to divert people's attention from its failures over the last 10 years,” he said.