Thursday, December 1 2005 14:08 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) today (Dec 1, 2005) staged a walk out in the Lok Sabha expressing dissatisfaction over the Centre's response to the killing of BJP MLA Krishananand Rai in GHazipur in Uttar Pradesh.

As BJP Deputy Leader V K Malhotra raised the issue during zero hour, Speaker Somnath Chatterjee said, "It is not a Central Government matter. This is a State matter".

"I am sure all appropriate steps would be taken" by the UP Government, he said.

Ram Gopal Yadav, whose Samajwadi Party heads the UP Government, accused BJP of using the incident as an excuse to spread communal tension.

He alleged that in three districts of Eastern UP, the minorities were being targetted. Several houses have been burnt in the aftermath of the Tuesday killing, he said.

Rai and six of his supporters were killed on Tuesday evening by suspected political rivals near a village in his Mohammadabad Assembly constituency, 100 kms from Varanasi, when they were going to attend a marriage.