Ghaziabad: Union Civil Aviation Minister and RLD chief Ajit Singh was on Thursday detained at the UP border in Ghaziabad while trying to visit the riot-hit Muzaffarnagar district. According to reports, the RLD chief was immediately taken into preventive custody by the Samajwadi Party (SP) government. The development comes hours after Ajit Singh tweeted this morning that SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav was trying to divide the state on the communal lines.
“Mulayam Singh Yadav is trying to be UP’s Modi, ” he had tweeted. Speaking to reporters later, the RLD chief asserted that the politics over Muzaffarabad riots will not dent his party’s support base- the Jats. “Jats will remain RLD voters,” Singh said. The RLD chief also criticised the Akhilesh Yadav government that it was not allowing him to visit the riot-hit district and address his community members. In the aftermath of the riots, the RLD seems to be fast losing out its traditional vote base and the SP appears to be a net gainer, despite reverses in certain areas that have faced the brunt of the riots.
While Muslims, a strong vote bank of the ruling Samajwadi Party, have blamed the Akhilesh Yadav government for having failed to protect them, Jats – long loyal to Ajit Singh’s Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) – on the other hand appear to be going the BJP way. In Muzaffarnagar and Shamli districts – which were the worst-hit in the communal clashes – people have already started looking up to BJP’s Narendra Modi as their “saviour”. The tensions have had a negative impact on the harmony between Jats and Muslims.
Bureau Report
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