The Bharatiya Janata Party has accused the Samajwadi Party and the Congress of sponsoring the protest by Muslim women in the state capital against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act.

The BJP said the action taken by the Yogi Adityanath government against those who indulged in arson and rioting and damaged public property had unnerved the SP and the Congress as properties of their members were being forfeited.

The BJP charged that the riotous mobs were patronised by these two opposition parties in December.

On December 20, after Friday prayers, violent mobs in 35 districts had targeted the police and pelted stones and opened fire at the cops during protest against the CAA.

BJP state spokesman Chandramohan said the protest by the women in old city of Lucknow had been organised only to mount pressure on the state government to stop the action against the criminals behind the anti CAA violence in December.

He said that despite the inducements offered  by the two opposition parties, very few Muslim women turned up for the protest at Hussainabad.

He said far from the common people, the family members of these women were also not supporting their protest.

The BJP leader said the people of the state had seen through the game of the two parties and they would not be misled by their political conspiracies.

Chandramohan alleged that the Congress and the SP had used Muslims as their vote bank and puppets and manipulate them for their own narrow political ends but had done nothing for the uplift of the community.

The BJP leader claimed that the Yogi Adityanath government on the other hand, had taken a series of measures for empowerment of the Muslim women, particularly those victims of triple talaq.

He said the victims of triple talaq had been provided  the benefit of Prime Minister Awas Yojana, universal health insurance scheme and annual pension of Rs 6,000.

The BJP state spokesman said efforts of the UP government would continue for the empowerment and overall development of the Muslim community in the state.

According to the amended citizenship law, members of Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian communities who have come from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan till December 31, 2014 due to religious persecution there, will not be treated as illegal immigrants but given Indian citizenship.