BJP raking up religious issues to nullify Karnataka effect: NCP leader Awhad

Nationalist Congress Party leader Jitendra Awhad on Thursday said the BJP was raking up religious issues as it wanted to counter the repercussions of its defeat in the Karnataka Assembly elections.

Holding a press conference here, Awhad presented some residents of the temple town of Trimbakeshwar in Nashik district which witnessed tensions earlier this week when some people belonging to another religion were accused of trying to enter the temple forcibly to offer incense.

''They (the BJP) tried this in the recent Karnataka elections but failed and the people of Karnataka kicked them out....to nullify this effect, they have brought up an issue of religion,'' Awhad, a former Maharashtra minister, said.

''I am happy that some 20,000 people in Trimbakeshwar have come together and said they will sort out their problem themselves and outsiders need not meddle,'' the NCP leader added.

Residents of the temple town who spoke at the press conference claimed that there has always been communal harmony in Trimbakeshwar.