New Delhi, Feb 7 (IANS): The BJP on Sunday rubbished Uttar Pradesh minister Azam Khan's claims that mafia don Dawood Ibrahim was present at Prime Minister Narendra Modi's meeting with his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif in Lahore last December, terming them an attempt to hide his government's failures.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national secretary Shrikant Sharma termed the comments a desperate attempt to hide the failures of the Samajwadi Party government in the state and divide the people.

He asked Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav to prove the allegations or apologise for the baseless remarks by his minister.

Azam Khan had on Saturday claimed that Modi had met Ibrahim at the residence of Sharif in Lahore.

The central government had dismissed the allegations terming them as baseless, unfounded and totally false.

Modi, on his way back from Kabul, had made an unscheduled stopover in Lahore on December 25 last year to meet Sharif.