Yogi Adityanath wants to communalise UP, alleges Mayawati

Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati on Monday accused Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP from Gorakhpur, Yogi Adityanath, of trying to communalise Uttar Pradesh.

The former Uttar Pradesh chief minister, who was reacting to the BJP MP's comment on the conversion row, urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to tackle this issue strongly.

"He (Yogi Adityanath) wants to communalise Uttar Pradesh. Also, he is creating a bad image for the Centre. Prime Minister Modi should, therefore, tackle this issue strongly. On the other side, it might be a trick to convert the minds of common people by the BJP because they failed to fulfill their promises," said Mayawati.

Meanwhile, Janata Dal (United) chief Sharad Yadav also condemned Adityanath's statement, saying the attempt to communalise people won't work.

"This attempt to communalise people is not going to work. The people of this nation are smart enough to see through it," Yadav said.

Earlier in the day, Adityanath had stated that the Opposition had run out of issues and were, therefore, creating a ruckus over the religious conversion issue.

He had earlier said that strict laws should be implemented on religion conversion, but if a Hindu got converted in the past due to some reasons then a 'ghar wapasi' should be allowed.

Last week, around 200 people were reportedly converted to Hinduism in a ceremony in Agra by groups linked to the BJP's ideological mentor RSS.

Bajrang Dal and Dharam Jagran Manch, the groups that performed the mass conversions, reportedly claimed that the families were originally Hindus and converted to Islam around 30 years ago.

The issue had led to an uproar in the Parliament by the opposition parties who demanded an explanation from the government.