Akhilesh Yadav booed in Muzaffarnagar over mishandling of riots

LUCKNOW: ChiefMinister Akhilesh Yadav got a taste of public resentment against his government and party when he was booed by a crowd during his tour of Muzaffarnagar’s riothit areas. Compounding troubles for SP, its Lok Sabha candidate for Baghpat, Sompal Shastri, expressed his unwillingness to contest as an SP candidate. A large crowd raised slogans against the chief minister at Kawal village in Muzaffarnagar, where Akhilesh Yadav had gone on Sunday to meet the family of Shahnawaz, killed on August 27.

The crowds raised slogans blaming the government for its failure to control the riots. Many in the crowd said that the CM did not meet ordinary villagers and remained surrounded by Samajwadi Party workers. Yadav visited several riot-hit villages including Malikpura and Kandha.

He later said that villagers told him that foreign weapons were used during the riots. “It has now become apparent some outsiders were also involved in the riots. We are looking into all angles. Strict measures would be taken and the National Security Act would be slapped on the accused,” said Yadav.

SP continued to battle with the political fallout over the riots as Sompal Shastri surrendered his ticket to contest the Bhagpat seat. Shastri, a former Union minister and a respected Jat leader from the area, said that the government had not been able to handle riots effectively and to express solidarity with the people of the area he was surrendering his ticket to contest as a Samajwadi Party candidate.

“It was the responsibility of the government to control the riots. Had the leadership been alert, the situation could have been avoided. I am deeply disturbed and therefore distancing myself from the Samajwadi Party,” he said.

Shastri, who had once defeated Rashtriya Lok Dal chief and Union minister Ajit Singh, is regarded as a prominent Jat leader of the area. The Muzaffarnagar riots had taken on the hues of a Jat-Muslim clash which saw 41 people dead and at least 43,000 people being displaced temporarily.

With Prime Minister Manmohan Singh slated to visit Muzaffarnagar on Monday, SP would continue to face the heat over the riots in the coming days.