Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on Monday termed the Muzaffarnagar communal riots a conspiracy to defame his government and polarize the state's polity" as opposition parties hit out at his government and demand he resign or central rule be imposed.
Two days after the communal clashes that left 31 people dead and more than four dozen injured in Muzaffarnagar in western Uttar Pradesh, politics took centrestage on Monday as parties blamed each other for the incidents.
"Political parties have joined hands to defame my government as they have run out of tricks owing to our development agenda," Akhilesh Yadav said on the sidelines of an event in which he flagged off the first lot of Haj pilgrims at the Haj house in Lucknow.
Minority Affairs Minister Azam Khan said a very "vicious face of politics was at play in UP" as he appealed for calm and peace.
While the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) reiterated its long standing demand of imposing president's rule in the state citing law and order breakdown, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) also said that was the only solution.
Congress, so long silent on the violence, on Monday said time had come for Akhilesh Yadav to own up responsibility and to step down for failing to anticipate and contain violence in the western Uttar Pradesh town.
Congress state chief Nirmal Khatri said that the situation was beyond control and had exposed the loose grip of Akhilesh on administration. "He should own up for the total break down of administrative machinery and quit," he added.
BSP chief Mayawati yet again targeted the Samajwadi Party (SP) government, saying she had long been pleading for imposition of president's rule but her pleas had gone unheeded.
"This is not the first of its kind incident and hence the state government will have to take the blame," she told reporters in New Delhi.
BJP's Ravi Shankar Prasad, who was prevented from going to Muzaffarnagar and detained along with party MPs from Meerut and Agra at Ghaziabad, said the SP government had forfeited the right to govern the state.
The party's state unit spokesman Vijay Bahadur Pathak said there was "complete lawlessness in the state, largely due to the policies of the state government and time has come to bring an end to this type of governance".
Civil Aviation Minister and Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) president Ajit Singh, who was also stopped at Ghaziabad while on his way to Muzaffarnagar and persuaded tto return to Delhi, also demanded the dismissal of the state government.
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