Lucknow, Nov 13 (IANS): The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Wednesday said the law and order situation in Uttar Pradesh was so poor that industrialists were turning their backs on the state.

Alleging that lawlessness and communal clashes had forced investors to have second thoughts about setting up shop in the state, BJP state spokesman Vijay Bahadur Pathak said not a single bid was made for the ambitious project of laying the eight-lane expressway between Agra and Lucknow.

Pathak said the situation reflected poorly on the Akhilesh Yadav government in the state.

Talking to reporters at the party headquarters Wednesday evening, the BJP leader said a conducive and peaceful work environment was necessary for healthy investment and added that the Samajwadi Party (SP) government in Uttar Pradesh had failed to instil confidence in the corporate world.

"UP is the biggest market in India, it has the largest workforce and human resource pool but it still lags behind in the development race, largely due to the poor law and order situation and spiralling crime," the party spokesman said.

The BJP also demanded a "white paper" on investments in UP during the last two years. The party said: "There is a yawning gap between perception and reality."

The spokesman pointed out how the crime graph had soared in Noida, Ghaziabad and the regions around Etawah, the home district of the chief minister.