Cong highlights Jat unrest, Khadse row to counter Amit Shah

The Congress on Sunday cornered Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah over his demand for the ouster of Uttar Pradesh PWD Minister Shivpal Singh Yadav in connection with the Mathura violence and wondered as to why no action was initiated against Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar during the Jat agitation.

Congress spokesperson Tom Vadakkan expressed his surprise over the BJP president making such a call.

"For Amit Shah to ask for resignation is strange because during the Jat agitation Khattar's resignation was also in place in Haryana," Vadakkan said, adding there must be level playing field for resignations.

Vadakkan also used the occasion to target the BJP over the controversy surrounding Eknath Khadese, saying resignation drama has been the name of the game that the BJP is following in Maharashtra too.

The BJP president yesterday asked Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav to demand the resignation of his younger brother and state PWD Minister Shivpal Yadav, squarely holding him responsible for the Mathura violence.

"If even a little bit of self-respect is left in Netaji (Mulayam), he should get minister Shivpal Yadav to resign immediately," Shah said in Kanpur.

Addressing a booth-level in-charge meet of Kanpur and Bundelkhand regions, he said: "An SP is killed in broad daylight. An SHO is killed. More than 200 people opened fire on police. But a minister (Shivpal) sitting in the secretariat patronises them and does not allow police to retaliate."

Shivpal, however, hit back at the BJP president and suggested him to follow positive, ideological and development oriented politics instead of misleading the people of the state.

"He has become short of issues due to better working of SP government and, therefore, he is giving baseless statements," he said.

Earlier on Saturday, Khadse resigned amid twin scandals over an illicit land deal and his cell-phone allegedly appearing in the call records of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim.

Khadse's resignation came after Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the national capital late on Thursday night, hours after he gave a report to the BJP president on the controversy.