UP blasts: The political blame game begins

Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil offered to hold a discussion on Friday's blasts in Uttar Pradesh in which at least 13 people were killed and several injured.

Replying to a request from the leader of opposition Lal Kishenchand Advani, Patil accepted that the terrorists were spilling over to many cities and that the terror network is growing.

Cutting across party lines, political parties condemned the blasts in Faizabad, Lucknow and Varanasi.

Bharatiya Janata Party leader Sushma Swaraj blamed the total failure of the intelligence agencies for the strikes carried out by the terrorists. But when reminded that the BJP-led National Democratic Allaince government was in power when the Kandahar incident took place, Swaraj lost her cool and said, "You keep going back to the old incidents. That was a different situation; we had to protect the lives of 180-odd people being held hostage on a plane."

While condemning the blasts, Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh used the opportunity to hit back at UP Chief Minister Mayawati for failing to protecting the citizens of the state.

Former chief minister of UP Kalyan Singh, who was sent to jail by the Supreme Court for failing to protect the Babri Masjid demolition in 1992, said that the people of the state had given a mandate to Mayawati. "When you handover the state to her, what more can you expect?" he asked.