The assault on Akhilesh was launched by the state BJP chief Lakshmikant Bajpai in a clear indication that BJP would seek to reclaim the largest state on the strength of its Hindutva appeal.
"In our state, 71 of 100 crimes are against women," Bajpai said. "It is shocking but true that 99.99% of the accused in these crimes are Muslims. The UP government is defending 'love jehadis' while victims are murdered or harassed by the police. The BJP aims to stop this and save the country," said the BJP leader at the conference which was convened to gear up the party for the challenge of UP elections.
The conference is being held on an upbeat note after the recent sweep of the Lok Sabha elections and the declaration by the party chief Amit Shah--architect of the May landslide — that he would not rest till he had won the politically crucial state for the party. The Lok Sabha win was facilitated by what independent observers call, Hindu consolidation in the wake of the Muzaffarnagar riots and the Akhilesh government's response to it.
Bajpai's aggressive speech indicated that the party, unfazed by the charge of stoking communal polarization, remains keen on capitalizing on what it considers the majority community's angst against the "appeasement" politics of its rivals. Allegations of 'love jehad', conversions and harassment of women have been the trigger for a rash of communal conflicts across UP particularly its western part. Bajpai in his address said, the UP government was patronizsing 'love jihadis' and that there were many such cases of 'love jihad' in the Braj region.
The unabashed recourse to Hindutva can further aggravate the 'BJP versus rest' political polarisation that was witnessed during the Lok Sabha polls.
This was evident on Saturday when Congress and Samajwadi Party showed unexpected forthrightness in defending the right of adults to marry into communities they wish to. Hitting out at the BJP for keeping 'love jehad' on the official agenda of the party's state units meeting in Uttar Pradesh, the Congress
which generally often tiptoes around divisive issues, said the party supported inter-faith marriages between adults. "In our constitution adults have right to marry in any caste or religion they wish," said Mahila Congress chief Shobha Oza. "BJP is trying to communalize the issue. This is very unfortunate," said Oza.
The Samajwadi Party whose chief in the past has been criticized for appearing indulgent towards rapists also echoed progressive sentiments. "When under the law adults are free to choose partners then how is it jehad?," asked SP leader Naresh Agarwal. He taunted the saffron outfit for choosing the phrase 'love jehad', saying it is not clear from where they have borrowed the idea.
In the BJP meeting that was headed by Union minister Kalraj Mishra, leaders exhorted their cadre to treat the upcoming bypolls in the state as the semifinals before Assembly election in 2017.
Sensing tension over distribution of tickets, party leaders told workers that they should not worry about tickets or anything else, but work instead for the party.
Bypolls will be held on September 13 in the Mainpuri parliamentary constituency, and also the Saharanpur, Bijnore, Thakurdwara, Noida, Lucknow (east), Nighasan, Hamirpur, Charkhari, Sirathu, Balha and Rohaniya assembly seats.
BJP national president Amit Shah stayed away on the first day of the meet. But Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, RSS leader Vinay Kariyar and MPs Santosh Gangwar, Hema Malini and Ramshankar Katheria were among those in attendance.
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