In the rush to derive political mileage from the riots in Muzaffarnagar and its adjoining districts, Congress President Sonia Gandhi and party's vice-president Rahul Gandhi plan to visit violence-hit areas to "assess the situation there".
The Congress is pining for minority votes in the hope of winning a respectable number of seats in the coming parliamentary election."Sonia Gandhi and Rahul will visit Muzaffarnagar next week to meet the riot-hit people and assess the situation there," Congress general secretary and in-charge of party affairs in UP, Madhusudan Mistry, said while talking to media persons after meeting the representatives of Robertsganj in Sonebhadra parliamentary constituencies on Thursday afternoon.
Mistri, who has accused Bharatiya Janata Party of trying to introduce its Gujarat model in UP to polarise voters by instigating communal violence, demanded stern action against those found responsible for the Muzaffarnagar riots. "Those who instigated violence should not be let off on the ground that they are workers of political parties or are public servants. They must be booked and put in jail for trying to divide society on communal lines," the Congress leader said.
When asked why the Centre was not dismissing the Akhilesh Yadav Government when the Congress believes that it had failed to tackle the situation and the Samajwadi Party was hand-in-gloves with the BJP in instigating communal violence, Mistry said several aspects had to be considered before dismissing a state government and as of now the Centre was not going to do it.
On Thursday, Union Minister of State for Human Resources, Jitin Prasada, had demanded resignation of Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, saying that a person who could not give protection to the people had no morale right to remain in the office. While demanding that relief camps be set up for riot-hit people, Mistri said if the state Government did not know how to organise such camps, he could give tips to it. The Congress general secretary said it was wrong to say that there was no riot in Gujarat since 2002. "After 2002, 52 people have been killed in Gujarat in such incidents," he said.