Lucknow, May 16 (IANS) Reacting sharply to Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi’s sweeping allegations about “rape” and “mass murder” of farmers in Greater Noida, Uttar Pradeh Chief Minister Mayawati termed it as a “bunch of lies”.

 
 In a late night statement, the ruling Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) spokesperson dismissed Rahul Gandhi’s allegation as a “blatant attempt of the Congress leader to misguide and mislead innocent farmers of the state".
 
 It said, “The statement is an afterthought to the BSP threat to lay a siege around the parliament in case the Congress-led UPA government fails to table a bill for desired amendments in the age old land acquisition act at the next session of parliament.”
 
 Congress MP Rahul Gandhi Monday took a delegation of affected farmers from Bhatta Parsaul village in Greater Noida to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi and alleged atrocities were committed on the villagers by the Uttar Pradesh government.
 
 "The farmers wanted to meet the prime minister and I facilitated it. People are being killed, women raped, I am quite concerned about the situation and it is still pretty bad," Gandhi told reporters outside the Prime Minister's Residence at 7 Race Course Road.
 
 According to the Uttar Pradesh government spokesperson, “Apparently, Rahul Gandhi had resorted to issuing such a baseless and wild allegation simply because his party had failed to carry out necessary amendments in the hackneyed law that was detrimental to the interest of the farmer.”
 
 Reiterating the whole background to the violence at Bhatta Parsaul village in Greater Noida, the statement sought to blame it all on “certain opposition parties, who had their own axe to grind.”
 
 The statement sought to clarify that the police had to move in to get three state roadways employees released from the captivity of some anti-social element in the garb of farmers leaders.
 
 “It was when the police got into action to get the illegally held employees released that the self styled farmer leaders launched an armed attack in which the district magistrate suffered bullet injuries while the senior superintendent of police was hit in the stone pelting, while two policemen died,” the statement pointed out.
 
 “Two farmers also lost their lives, but it was an open secret that all the trouble was started by the self-styled farmer leaders who were hand in glove with the anti-social element who were out to incite trouble at the behest of certain political groups,” it added.