Dadri lynching: BJP is trying to polarise voters ahead of UP polls, says CPI(M)

New Delhi: Accusing BJP of stoking communal passions over Dadri incident to polarise voters ahead of 2017 Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls, CPI(M) on Saturday staged a protest and sought removal of Union ministers Mahesh Sharma and Sanjeev Balyan for their alleged involvement in “fanning” such sentiments. “The Hindutva forces are trying to polarise communally the entire western Uttar Pradesh over alleged ‘beef consumption’. This poisonous strategy is being used at a time when Assembly polls are around the corner there,” a statement quoted CPI(M) Delhi state secretary KM Tiwari as saying. [caption id=“attachment_2829446” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Family members of Mahommad Akhlaq. Reuters[/caption] Tiwari said reported statement by Balyan, the Union Minister of State for Agriculture, seeking probe of “all those who had eaten beef found outside Mohammad Akhlaq’s residence” was “shocking”, and he sought his removal. “Besides this, the top leadership of the BJP from the area including Union Minister of Culture Mahesh Sharma and (BJP MLA) Sangeet Som are also involved in this conspiracy,” Tiwari alleged. “Sharma too should be sacked,” he added. Besides Tiwari, several other office-bearers and workers of Delhi unit of CPI(M) took part in the dharna (sit-in protest) at the Jantar Mantar. According to media reports, Balyan had on Monday sought a probe to ascertain identities of all those who also had eaten the meat recovered from outside the residence of 50-year-old Akhlaq, who was lynched in Dadri’s Bishada village for allegedly consuming beef in September last year. Som too had reportedly demanded sending members of Akhlaq’s family to jail for killing a cow. The statement from the leaders had come after a forensic report said the meat sample collected from outside Akhlaq’s house belonged to a “cow or its progeny”.