Lucknow communal violence engineered by Mulayam govt: BJP

Lucknow, Mar 4 (UNI) Levelling direct allegation on the Mulayam Singh Yadav government for ''engineering communal trouble'' in the Uttar Pradesh capital, the BJP today said it was a pre-planned act on part of the Samajwadi Party-led dispensation in the state.

The party further added that two prominent Muslim clerics in collusion with Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav fomented the communal trouble in order to garner minority votes for the UP government.

''Yesterday's communal violence is a definite sign of Mulayam government counting its days,'' Mr Lalji Tandon, BJP leader in the state assembly told reporters in the presence of state party president Keshari Nath Tripathi.

The state had seen it in the past also that every time Mr Yadav was on his way out from power, communal riots occurred, Mr Tandon said.

''It is a well thought out conspiracy against the Hindu community, which unfortunately has no saviour in the present ruling dispensation,'' he said.

Coming down heavily on the ''partial attitude'' of the Lucknow district administration, the senior BJP leader claimed that police remained a mute spectator during the communal voilence triggered off after an anti-Bush procession here.

''What Hindus had to do with the procession, but still they were subjected to voilent incidents,'' he lamented.

The problem had its nemesis in the controversial statement of UP minister Haji Yaqoob, who announced a 'suprai' for the Danish cartoonist, who had caricatured the Prophet.

''Had the issue in the wake of minister's announcement nipped in the bud, the situation in Lucknow and elsewhere would not have turned ugly,'' he noted.

''It is now clear that Yaqoob's statement had full support of CM with an eye on minority votes,'' he maintained.

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