SP wants to keep Jamia encounter alive

Unfazed by the Centre's refusal to order a judicial inquiry into the Jamia Nagar encounter, Samajwadi Party has decided to "keep hammering the issue to keep it alive till the Lok Sabha elections".

Unfazed by the Centre's refusal to order a judicial inquiry into the Jamia Nagar encounter, Samajwadi Party has decided to "keep hammering the issue to keep it alive till the Lok Sabha elections".

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Worried that the BSP could hijack its traditional Muslim votebank in Uttar Pradesh in the general elections early next year, the SP leadership has decided to keep the issue of minority harassment on the boil by keeping incidents like Jamia Nagar gunbattle in public memory.

"We will keep on hammering this issue till the Lok Sabha elections as it is an important matter," a senior SP leader told PTI in New Delhi on sunday.

The SP leadership has realised that by raising the issue of minorities' isolation, especially after the serial bomb blasts rocking the nation, it can win more seats from UP.

The visit of SP general secretary Amar Singh to Jamia Nagar on two occasions this month, seems clearly aimed at wooing back the minorities, who have been the party's significant votebank for a long time.

While Singh has repeatedly been seeking a judicial probe into the incident, the pressure on Congress is expected to mount more with SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav also joining the chorus for the same.