Lucknow: Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav said on Thursday that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government wanted to take advantage of the situation by making various caste groups fight among themselves.

Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath rubbished the charge and said that the BJP would never do politics on caste or give patronage to any particular caste.

The chief minister was in Gonda on Thursday to visit the flood-affected areas when he said, “There is a law to protect every citizen and the government will not allow misuse of any Act at any cost.”

Reacting to the Bharat Bandh call given by upper-caste organisations against the amendment in the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, he said that such organisations had no relevance and the Indian Constitution gives every citizen enough rights to protect themselves.

Meanwhile, Mr Yadav, while referring to the Bharat Bandh call, said that injustice should not be done to any particular caste. “The BJP has always pursued the policy of divide and rule but we must be careful and not play into their hands,” he said.

Mr Yadav said that the BJP wanted to divert people’s attention from its failures on the development front and was using emotive issues to divide the people.

Mr Yadav was addressing members of the ex-servicemen cell of his party when he said that Mr Adityanath would not remain the chief minister after the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

“The situation in Uttar Pradesh is going from bad to worse and the claimants for the chief minister’s post are intensifying their fight. One deputy chief minister is already holding caste conferences and is very active in caste politics,” he said.