Lucknow: Bahujan Samajwadi Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati on Monday blamed Samajwadi Party (SP) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for the communal riots in Muzaffarnagar.
"Both SP and BJP seems to be behind the violence. Lok Sabha polls are drawing close and both parties seem to be playing dirty politics and want to rake up communal issues ahead of the polls," Mayati said.
She also demanded imposition of President`s Rule in the state after the Muzaffarnagar communal clashes claimed 28 lives.
"Since the Samajawadi Party (SP) government came to power, the law and order situation in the state has continuously deteriorated. The communal clashes have made the life of people even more miserable," said Mayawati.
She further said that the present Akhilesh Yadav government is responsible for the communal flare-up in the Muzaffarnagar that took place after the eve-teasing incident.
"The incident took place last month. The government could have done something to control the situation at that point of time only. But it came to action once the situation got completely out of control," she said.
Stressing that the security situation has been worsening in the state, she said that over 100 incidents of communal clashes have taken place since SP came to power.
"In such a scenario, President`s Rule is the call of the hour," Mayawati said.
The clashes were sparked off after a huge convention of a particular community was organised in the town on Sunday to protest against several cases of sexual harassment reported in the past couple of weeks.
According to local police, some participants in this convention got into a fight with villagers on the outskirts of Muzaffarnagar. As this group got into town, some of those who had been beaten up started ransacking shops.
A TV journalist was also killed while he was covering the arson in Muzaffarnagar town. As many as 22 districts across the state have been put under curfew at various times in the past one year.
