Karnataka election worries seem to be playing on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s mind more than the country's foreign policy. Perhaps for this reason, during his ongoing tour to the United Kingdom, he is also campaigning for the Karnataka assembly elections. PM Modi had unveiled a statue of Lingayat Saint Basaveshwara during his tour of the UK in 2015, and his program in London on Wednesday included prayers at the statue, situated on the river Thames. All this is well and good as today is Basava Jayanti, the birth anniversary of the saint.

However, in a fit of over eagerness to send a message to Lingayat voters, a news agency reported that Prime Minister Modi had said “It is a matter of happiness for me that I will get to interact with people here on the birth anniversary of Lord Basaveshwara” to British Prime Minister Theresa May. Unsurprisingly, Prime Minister May wears a somewhat baffled expression in the accompanying photo.