Senior BJP leaders, including party chief JP Nadda and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, lashed out at Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday night, accusing the Congress MP of disrespecting north Indians, and seeking to "divide and rule", during an election rally in Kerala's Thiruvananthapuram. Mr Gandhi, who is in the southern state to campaign ahead of Assembly polls due in a few weeks, had said: "For first 15 years I was a MP in the north. So I had got used to a different type of politics. Coming to Kerala was very refreshing as suddenly I found that people are interested in issues... and not just superficially, but going into details."