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Cutting across party lines, politicians on Monday condemned Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) general secretary Amit Shah's description of Azamgarh as a base for terrorists.
Shah, considered to be Modi's right hand man, made this remark on Sunday during an election campaign in Azamgarh.
Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Tariq Anwar called upon the Election Commission for stringent action against Shah.
"Making such a remark is an irresponsible action and the Election Commission should take action against him for such a remark and investigate the remark, making such a remark about a particular place and particular community indicates what kind of ideology he has in his heart as well as mind," he said.
Congress spokesperson Shobha Ojha, accused Shah of playing politics based on communalism.
"People like Amit Shah never improve; their entire politics is based on communalism and they keep spreading their poison of communalism. They keep trying to break the nation," she said.
Muslim cleric, Mufti Mukarram, accused Shah of engaging the nation into terrorism.
"Amit Shah wants to turn the entire nation into a factory of terrorism and engage the nation into terrorism. As he is becoming unsuccessful in this mission, he is feeling threatened. It is completely wrong to call Azamgarh a place or a factory of terrorism. People of India stay together with peace and harmony and people like Amit Shah can never be successful," he said.
Amit Shah had termed Azamgarh a "base of terrorists" backed by the Samajwadi Party government.
Campaigning for the BJP's Azamgarh candidate, Ramakant Yadav, who is taking on Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav, Shah said the number of terrorists living in Azamgarh or hailing from the area was high, as the state government was advocating their release in many cases connected to them.
"Azamgarh is the base of terrorists as there is no fear of the government, which is advocating their release," Shah said.
