Bharatiya Janata Party leader Hukum Singh on Tuesday said that the “Hindu exodus” from Kairana, Uttar Pradesh, is not a “Hindu-Muslim issue”, according to NDTV. Singh had brought up the matter last week by listing members of 346 Hindu families who, he alleged, were forced to leave the district after being threatened by members “from a particular community”. On Monday he had released another 63 names of people who left Kandhla, but said his lists “do not have just Hindu names on them”, NDTV said.

“By mistake someone in my team mentioned Hindu families. I asked them to change that. I stick to my stand that this is not a Hindu-Muslim issue. This is just a list of people who have left Kairana under duress… It's not a communal issue, but a law and order problem,” he said, adding that the Akhilesh Yadav-led government was communalising the issue. Yadav on Monday ordered an investigation into the matter.

Rival Congress and Bahujan Samaj Party leaders have accused the BJP of bringing up communal issues and polarising voters ahead of the 2017 elections in the state.