BJP not sparing the dead: Maharashtra Congress chief

The BJP is making false allegations against Ahmed Patel to cover up the "sins" of the Gujarat riots, Congress's Maharashtra chief Nana Patole said.

Maharashtra Congress chief Nana Patole on Saturday alleged that the BJP is making false allegations against Ahmed Patel to cover up the "sins" of the Gujarat riots.

While misusing government agencies to harass opposition leaders, the BJP was not sparing even those who are dead, he said.

The police in BJP-ruled Gujarat on Friday claimed, while opposing bail for activist Teesta Setalvad, that she was part of a larger conspiracy, carried out at the behest of late Congress leader Ahmed Patel, to dismiss the BJP government in that state after the 2002 riots.

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"The allegations made by the BJP against Ahmed Patel are baseless. This is a desperate attempt to whitewash Prime Minister Narendra Modi's image which had been tarnished by the 2002 Gujarat riots," Patole told reporters.

Then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had chided Narendra Modi for not doing his duty during the riots, he said, adding that the saffron party was now levelling cheap allegations only "to cover up the sins of Gujarat riots."

"The conspiracy to torture and harass the opposition through the government machinery has not spared even those who have died," Patole said.