BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi speaks during a rally in Lucknow yesterday.


Agencies/Lucknow


Bharatiya Janata Party’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi yesterday highlighted his state’s record on religious tolerance, saying “not a single riot” had occurred in the last 10 years.
At an election rally in the northern city of Lucknow, Modi trumpeted social and economic development in Gujarat, where he has been chief minister since 2001 - a year later it was the scene of deadly communal riots.
In front of several hundred thousand supporters, Modi sought to contrast Gujarat with the electorally crucial state of Uttar Pradesh where he said crime, including against women and religious minorities, was spiralling.
“Within a span of one year 150 riots took place in Uttar Pradesh, but in the last 10 years, not a single riot, not even a curfew has occurred in Gujarat,” Modi told the crowd in Lucknow, the state’s capital.
Modi was referring to clashes between Muslims and Hindus around Uttar Pradesh’s Muzaffarnagar district last year that killed at least 50 people and forced thousands to flee to refugee camps.
Political parties are battling hard in Uttar Pradesh, a key swing state which is home to almost 200mn people - nearly 19% of them Muslim - ahead of general elections due in coming months.
Modi is expected to trump the Congress Party after a decade in power.
But Modi, who has presented himself as a business-friendly candidate, remains a divisive leader tarnished by the religious riots in Gujarat in 2002 that killed more than 1,000 people, mostly Muslims.
He has been dogged by accusations he did too little to prevent the carnage.
Yesterday, Modi accused the Uttar Pradesh government of neglecting the Muslim population, leaving them among the poorest in the state.
However, Mulayam Singh Yadav, the chief of the state’s ruling Samajwadi Party in a counter-attack blamed Modi for the 2002 communal riots in Gujarat.
Yadav, in a scathing attack, referred to Modi as “a killer of humanity.”
Addressing a large gathering at the parade ground in Allahabad, Yadav took on the Congress as well, saying both major parties were detrimental for the country’s prosperity.
The Samajwadi Party chief made fun of BJP president Rajnath Singh’s overtures to Muslims, saying “after (committing) mass murders, the BJP is now seeking an apology. Can this be accepted?”
He said Modi’s charisma would not work in Uttar Pradesh and also denounced the so-called Gujarat model of development.
“There is nothing in Gujarat... Experts have said that the most dirty and polluted rivers are in Gujarat.”
He made light of the crowds packing Modi’s rally in Lucknow. “You should compete on the basis of development rather than the crowds.”
Yadav insisted that Modi would never become the prime minister.
“The BJP does not even have candidates... They are breaking the Congress and other parties and giving people from these parties ticket,” he added.
Yadav did not spare the Congress either.
“The Congress has no policies for the poor and the minorities. Even the boundaries of the country are not safe in its hands,” he said.
Addressing the same rally, his son and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav said the government had undertaken several welfare schemes which were now being aped by other state governments.