Indian Hindu nationalist party Shiv Sena has taken a jab at former Maharashtra State Chief Devendra Fadnavis for saying that "Karachi will be a part of India one day".
Taking on Fadnavis on Monday, Sanjay Raut, a spokesperson for Maharashtra's governing Shiv Sena commented that "First, bring the Kashmir that is occupied by Pakistan. We will go to Karachi later".
The war of words between the one-time political allies began after a local Shiv Sena functionary asked a shopkeeper in Mumbai to delete the word "Karachi" from the name of the store.
A video in which Shiv Sena's Nitin Nandgaonkar was seen asking the shop owner in Mumbai to delete "Karachi" to something in "Marathi" has since gone viral.
Raut later clarified that the demand to change the shop's name was not his party's official stance.
Key functionaries of the governing BJP, including Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, have in the past spoken about a Greater India and called for a referendum to be held in Pakistan to see if its citizens wanted to remain there or wanted to merge with India.
Pakistan was culled out as a separate Islamic country at the time of independence from British colonial rule in 1947.
While the South Asian neighbours administer parts of the Kashmir region, both claim it in its entirety. India and Pakistan have also fought two wars over Kashmir – in 1947 and 1965. A limited conflict in Kargil erupted in 1999 over Kashmir.