BJP charges UPA govt with ''vote bank politics''

Hyderabad, Sep 1 (UNI) The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Andhra Pradesh today charged the UPA Government at the Centre with playing ''vote bank politics'' by forming a high-level committee to remove ''anomalies'' in Muslims' representation in Lok Sabha and state assemblies.

Issuance of fresh guidelines by the Manmohan Singh government to increase the share of Muslims in government jobs, public sector banks and PSUs was nothing but an attempt to woo them with an eye on the next Lok Sabha elections, BJP State General Secretary K Laxman alleged at a press conference here.

Referring to Union Minority Affairs Minister A R Antulay tabling in the Lok Sabha a 15-point action plan on the report of the Committee headed by Justice Rajinder Sachar which went into the social, economic and educational status of the Muslims, the BJP leader questioned as to how could the Congress resort to ''appeasement'' of a particular religious group even while claiming that the party was ''secular''.

Alleging that the Congress government in the state was hurting the backward classes, including toddy tappers, with its revenue-driven excise policy, he announced that the party activists would lay a siege to the Excise department office here on September demanding that the Government redress their grievances.

UNI