SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav today created a flutter when he claimed that no riot-hit victim was left at the relief camps in Muzaffarnagar and only supporters of Congress and BJP were staying there as part of a conspiracy to tarnish the image of his party's government in UP.
Yadav's claim at an event here came even as Rahul Gandhi's surprise visit to Muzaffarnagar to meet the riot victims yesterday triggered a fresh round of sparring between Samajwadi Party(SP) and Congress.
With the Uttar Pradesh government facing flak for the prevailing conditions at the relief camps, he alleged that the visit by the Congress Vice President was aimed at inciting people.
Union Minister Beni Prasad Verma also fired a fresh salvo at the state government accusing it of not providing proper facilities and said it should resign if it had any morality left.
Gandhi had hit out at the state government alleging the conditions in the relief camps were "very bad".
"There are no riot victims at all in the camps. There is not even one. You can check. These are people who are conspirators. BJP and Congress have conspired. They have asked people to stay there at night and sit in dharnas. This is conspiracy of the people there.
"They(riot victims) have all gone. Congress and BJP are provoking them...," Yadav said.
Yadav's remarks evoked condemnation from the Congress and the BJP.
Congress leader Akhilesh Pratap Singh said Yadav's claims contradicted the affidavit filed by the UP government in the Supreme Court recently while BJP's Sudhanshu Mittal dubbed it as "appalling".
