A BJP lawmaker urged Hindu women not to have Muslims apply mehndi to their palms on Karwa Chauth, which fell on Thursday.

The comment by Khatauli MLA Vikram Saini came a day after a court sentenced him to two years in prison over the 2013 communal riots in Muzaffarnagar, while granting bail simultaneously.

“Women should get mehndi done at home,” Saini told reporters in Muzaffarnagar on Thursday. “It’s mostly Muslim youths who apply mehndi to Hindu women’s palms (at parlours). They are not mehndi artists, they are love jihadis.”

“Love jihad” is a Right-wing coinage for an alleged conspiracy by Muslim youths to lure Hindu women into marriage to convert and radicalise them.

Lalit Maheshwari, a VHP leader, told reporters in Muzaffarnagar that his outfit’s youth wing, the Bajrang Dal, had opened “mehndi booths” operated by Hindu women.

Maheshwari said: “We are taking several steps to keep our sisters and daughters away from Muslims. The Bajrang Dal has opened 13 booths in Muzaffarnagar city where our daughters are applying mehndi to Hindu women’s palms.”

“We have also formed eight teams of our members to keep vigil on beauty parlours and mehndi booths run by non-Hindus.”

On Wednesday, a Muzaffarnagar court had awarded two-year jail terms to Saini and 11 others for their involvement in the 2013 communal violence in Muzaffarnagar, which claimed over 60 lives and left 50,000 families homeless.

Additional district and sessions judge Gopal Upadhyaya granted all of them bail – against two bail bonds of Rs 20,000 each --- so that they could appeal before a higher court.

On Monday, Yati Narasinghanand Saraswati aka Deepak Tyagi, mahant of the Dasna Devi temple in Ghaziabad, and 17 others accused of instigating riots in Muzaffarnagar on August 31, 2013, had surrendered before a court in the district.

The civil judge (senior division), Mayank Jaiswal, had issued non-bailable warrants against them.

Narasinghanand has been in the news over his alleged call for genocide against Muslims at a Dharma Sansad in Haridwar last December, and subsequent hawkish utterances. He is out on bail in the Haridwar case.