Lucknow: A noisy BJP cavalcade rolled across the streets of Khair near Aligarh on Saturday, rumbling past a PWD guesthouse from whose walls a portrait of the Aligarh Muslim University founder, Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, had mysteriously disappeared on Friday.

Officially, it was a Gram Swaraj Yatra, part of an outreach drive by the Narendra Modi government "to take welfare schemes to the people".

But there had been no word of such a programme even till Friday evening. Gram Swaraj Yatras are supposed to involve interactions with villagers but Saturday's three-hour road show, led by local MP Satish Gautam and MLA Anup Pradhan, failed to stop at any of the two dozen villages it passed through.

"It almost looked like a victory parade, perhaps to celebrate the removal of Sir Syed's portrait," a local journalist said.

Throughout the journey, the BJP supporters atop the 25-odd open-top vehicles chanted "Bharat Mata ki jai" along with the usual zindabads to their party, MP and MLA.

Later, replying to a reporter's question, Gautam reaffirmed that he had no role in the disappearance of the portrait. But he added: "Why is there no picture of Prime Minister Narendra Modi or chief minister Yogi Adityanath there? There must be a photo of the PM."

Sir Syed's portrait was removed from the guesthouse, frequently used for BJP meetings, amid a controversy over a picture of Muhammad Ali Jinnah at the students' union office at Aligarh Muslim University, 26km away.

Gautam had set the ball rolling, writing to AMU vice-chancellor Tariq Mansoor on Monday that Jinnah's portrait should be removed. On Wednesday, six people were injured in a police baton charge when the Hindu Yuva Vahini, a militia founded by Adityanath, stormed the campus to try and remove the portrait but faced student resistance.

A BJP source said Gautam had told his supporters before starting the Yatra that Sir Syed had propounded the two-nation theory, and Jinnah had taken it forward.

Tariq Ahmed, former director of the Sir Syed Academy at AMU, dismissed the claim. "The AMU founder was never linked to the two-nation theory. It was propounded by the British and taken forward by Jinnah," he said.

Asked why Sangh parivar groups were suddenly opposing Sir Syed and Jinnah, Ahmed said: "Everything will become normal after the (May 28) by-elections (to the Kairana Lok Sabha and Noorpur Assembly seats)."

The seats are not far from Aligarh and have been vacant since the death of the BJP lawmakers who held them.

Maskoor Ahmad Usmani, president of the AMU students' union, was more forthright. "The BJP knows that it cannot win any election without raising a divisive issue," he said.

"It lost the Phulpur and Gorakhpur Lok Sabha by-elections in March because there was no polarising factor."

A PWD source had suggested on Friday that a guesthouse official may have removed Khan's portrait fearing controversy, and that it would be reinstalled soon.

A guesthouse employee told reporters that state minister Suresh Rana and his aides had stayed there last week. Pradhan met party workers at the guesthouse on Tuesday, and his supporters gathered there a few hours after the removal of Sir Syed's portrait.