In the backdrop of communal riots in Muzaffarnagar, Congress today asked the Uttar Pradesh government to ban BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi's close aide Amit Shah in the state to maintain peace.
"If the government wants to save Uttar Pradesh from communal forces and riots, it should ban Shah so that peace and order could prevail," Congress legislature party leader Pradip Mathur told reporters here.
"Ever since Shah, BJP's in-charge for UP, came to the state, an atmosphere of riots and clashes has been created here," Mathur said.
"BJP was out to repeat the Gujarat model in UP of polarising the voters," he added.
The Congress leader said that BJP and Shah have got their men here from Gujarat to communalise the atmosphere and prepare the field for the saffron party for the coming Lok Sabha elections and have started the mission from western UP.
"They would first cause vinash (destruction) and then talk about vikas (development)," Mathur said.
On Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, Mathur said "he is day dreaming of becoming the prime minister."
He added, "These are power hungry people... They cannot match the sacrifices made by Congress and its leaders for the country."
"Modi is busy commenting about the prime minister and the Congress party, making tall claims while people in his state are facing hardship because of floods," Mathur said.
Taking strong exception to Mathur's comment on Shah, BJP spokesman Vijay Bahadur Pathak asked the government to get the role of the party leader probed if it so wanted.
"It seems that the Congress leader is not fully informed.... His demanding ban on Shah is like surrendering even before the war (elections) could start," Pathak said.
On Mathur alleging that BJP was polarising the voters, Pathak said "it is not BJP but the Samajwadi Party and the Congress which are together working to polarise the society.
