No place for others in areas with over 40% Muslim population: BJP MP Yogi Adityanath

New Delhi: BJP leader Yogi Adityanath on Sunday came under attack from Congress and Left Parties for his controversial remarks on the minority community even as BJP accused Samajwadi Party of creating communal tension in Uttar Pradesh.

"It is an unfortunate and condemnable statement," Congress leader Rashid Alvi said a day after the firebrand BJP leader attacked the minority community, saying riots happen wherever they are more than 10 per cent in numbers.

"He always makes statements which can lead to disputes. It is very unfortunate to talk such things about a particular community," Alvi said.

CPI leader D Raja termed as "absurd" the Gorakhpur MP's remarks.

"It also shows the rabid communal interpretation of the situation since Muslims are some 20 per cent or more, that causes communal strife. This is absurd and it shows the hatred of these people towards Muslims," he said.

Reacting cautiously, BJP leader Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said, "We do not look at communal riots through the prism of any religion or community." BJP MP Yogi Adityanath (Photo: PTI/File)

Alleging that communal tension has increased in Uttar Pradesh on a daily basis ever since Samajwadi Party came to power, the BJP Vice President said, "Samajwadi Party and its leadership are responsible for the communal riots which have happened on such a large scale."

He said, "Everybody --be it Hindu, Muslim or Sikh –has suffered from it and is a victim of this."

Adityanath, who is among three party leaders entrusted with leading the BJP campaign for the upcoming bye-elections in Uttar Pradesh, had said Hindus will reply "in the same language" if they are subjected to attacks or forcible conversions.

Talking about communal riots, he had told Rajat Sharma in 'Aap Ki Adalat' programme on India TV that there are three categories of places where they occur.

"In places where there are 10 to 20 per cent minorities, stray communal incidents take place. Where there are 20 to 35 per cent of them, serious communal riots take place and where they are more than 35 per cent, there is no place for non-Muslims," he had said.

Congress leader Salman Khurshid also criticised Adityanath's statement.

"I think he is mistaken about what thinks he is going to achieve. He may have got some temporary benefit out of this.

"People of India....Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, Jains....whoever people of this country are too sensible and too far sighted to be driven to divisions because the kind of aspirations that the narrow -minded people in BJP have," Khurshid said.

On Adityanath's remarks, BJP Secretary Shrikant Sharma said he has only out forward some statistics and that no communal colour be given to them.

Criticising those who were playing politics with his comments, he said, "The country is in this state today due to such politics played by Congress."

He said his party believed in 'Ek Bharat Shresht Bharat' and welfare of all.

Attacking the Akhilesh Yadav government in Uttar Pradesh, Sharma said it is fact that communal riots have increased during the SP regime and as many as 247 riots took place in 2013, besides 8,000 rapes and 38,000 violent incidents.