Dirty politics: Were communal riots in UP West orchestrated for gains in bypolls?

Out of 24 riots in Uttar Pradesh since May 16, most of the communal frenzy incidents took place in the UP West region, which is home to half of the total assembly constituencies where bypolls are to be held in November, a report published in TOI said.

Akhilesh Yadav-led Uttar Pradesh has seen nearly 24 riots in the past two months and the riots claimed over 8 lives, the report added.

Noteworthy, more than 50 per cent of the riots were triggered over petty issues like use of loudspeakers at religious spots or fire crackers in festival

related processions.

In UP, bypolls are to be held in 12 assembly constituencies and out of these 12, six have seen communal violence in the past two months.

UP West includes Meerut, Saharanpur, Moradabad, Bareilly, Agra and Aligarh division.