LUCKNOW: Congress lashed out at the Mayawati government in Uttar Pradesh for recommending CBI inquiry into the communally sensitive CD allegedly released by BJP ahead of assembly polls saying it appeared to be aimed at "saving the skin" of those named in the case including saffron party chief Rajnath Singh.

"When the charges were proved during the investigations by the police, a case should have been lodged and action taken accordingly...Recommending the case to CBI shows that the government wanted to provide reprieve to those named in the case", Congress General Secretary in charge of party affairs in the state Digvijay Singh told newspersons here.

"Mayawati had had an understanding with BJP in the past too", he said. Singh, however, asked the government to do the needful like issuing a notification if it was really serious for CBI inquiry into the case so that the matter could be taken up by the central investigating agency without delay.

The FIR in connection with the case also named senior state BJP leader Lalji Tandon and six other party leaders. On the Chief Minister's charge that Congress was conspiring to kill her, Singh asked her to provide evidence, if any, of threat from Congress, saying charges levelled by her to this effect were very serious.

"Congress does not believe in violence and if Ms. Mayawati has any evidence to support her charges that Congress wanted to eliminate her she should provide it to either the Union Home Minister or the Prime Mnister", he said.