Opposition parties in Uttar Pradesh today demanded dismissal of Akhilesh Yadav government saying it had no moral right to continue after the Supreme Court held it prima facie responsible for negligence in preventing communal violence in Muzaffarnagar.
The state government "has lost the moral right to continue in office" after today's order by the apex court, BSP, BJP and Congress here said in separate press statements.
"The failure of the government in checking loss of life and property have now been accepted by the Supreme Court also and Akhilesh government needs to resign immediately or else it should be dismissed," BSP chief Mayawati said.
"BJP and SP are together spreading communal hatred following which several riots have occurred in the state and Muzaffarnagar riots are also a result of this," she said.
BJP president Rajnath Singh, on a visit to the state capital, also demanded that the UP government should quit.
"If those who used to level charges on BJP had any morality in them they should immediately resign," he said.
BJP spokesman Vijay Bahadur Pathak said the state unit president of the BJP Laxmikant Bajpai will meet Governor BL Joshi to request him to recommend dismissal of the SP government following the Supreme Court orders.
Chairman of Congress' communication department, Satyadev Tripathi said, "if the state government does not resign on moral grounds, it needs to immediately dismiss the culprit minister after whose phone call the riots in Muzaffarnagar took place or else the people would feel that court's orders are not being honoured."
"The SC verdict also proved that both the BJP and the SP together want to instigate riots and gain mileage on it in elections on communal grounds," Tripathi added.
Earlier today, a bench headed by Chief Justice P Sathasivam said "we prima facie hold the state government responsible for negligence in preventing such incidents."
It also directed the state authorities to bring to book all accused persons irrespective of their political affiliations.
