BJP today condemned UP government's crackdown against VHP yatra from Ayodhya and accused it of playing vote bank politics while Samjwadi Party said it won't let the state "become another Gujarat" or a repeat of Dec 6, 1992, when the Babri mosque was demolished.
Opposing the 'Chaurasi Kosi Parikrama Yatra', Congress chose to target both the Samajwadi Party and BJP, claiming it was a purely political exercise and that both parties were "enacting a drama" as there was an "understanding" between them.
"Matchfixing in Ayodhya?," tweeted Digvijay Singh.
But ruling Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh claimed it had saved the state from a confrontation.
"If some people feel that they can disrupt the process of development by spreading communal disorder in the state, they won't be successful. We will not let Uttar Pradesh become another Gujarat. There is no place for communal tension in the state," Samajwadi spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary.
Senior UP minister Azam Khan said he was "thankful to the people that they have not fallen in the VHP's trap.
"We have saved UP from any sort of confrontation which might had placed the large number of peace loving people in hardship," Khan said in Rampur, adding "very few detentions have taken place, otherwise everywhere there is calm and people are unfazed by VHP's calls".
He termed the yatra as an attempt to spoil the atmosphere of the state with an eye on the 2014 elections.
"People have understood the game VHP and BJP are playing....Will make sure that the loss that was suffered on December 6 1992 is not repeated again," Khan said.
Condemning the arrest of Ashok Singhal and other religious leaders, BJP said the Uttar Pradesh Government should not have interfered with the yatra.
"BJP strongly condemns the action of the Uttar Pradesh government in arresting Shri Ashok Singhalji, in detaining the sadhus and sants from taking out the yatra. India is a free country. People have got every right to move around, to take out yatra. You can regulate the yatra. How can you stop it? It is all being done keeping in mind only vote-bank politics," senior BJP leader M Venkaiah Naidu told reporters in Hyderbad.
Party leader Shahnawaz Hussein accused SP of disrupting communal harmony for its vote bank politics and said there was no "tension" as was being claimed by UP authorities.
