Bengaluru: A faculty member of Mount Carmel English High School in Bengaluru was dismissed after a question paper for class 8 students asked if a farmer's friend was an earthworm or chief minister HD Kumaraswamy or BJP leader BS Yeddyurappa, an official said on Thursday.

"The faculty member responsible for setting the question paper was dismissed from the post," Raghavendra, the principal of the school in the city's southwestern suburbs addressed the media.

The question, which was reportedly asked in the annual examination paper for the Kannada language of class 8 students, soon went viral on social media platforms for its political tone.

It was included in the examination without the knowledge of the administration, the principal added.

In the southern state, BJP state president Yeddyurappa calls himself a ‘Raitha Bandhu’ (farmers' friend), while Kumaraswamy has often referred to himself as the farmers' leader, using it as a means of wooing the state's farming community.

Kumaraswamy's party, Janata Dal-Secular (JD(S)), also depicts a female farmer with a green flag (symbolic of fields and the farming community).

The question in the examination, however, did not intend to promote any political party or ideology, the school administration asserted.