Calling the 18th century legendary king Tipu Sultan "communal", BJP today expressed strong reservations about the state government's move to celebrate his birth anniversary as "Tipu Jayanti".

"State government has decided to celebrate Tipu Jayanti. Bharatiya Janata Party strongly criticises this move," Karnataka BJP President Prahlad Joshi said.

Calling Tipu Sultan "communal", he said "We all know how he forced religious conversion on people... he had written letters to Islamic rulers of Turkey and Afghanistan to attack India, so as to make this country an Islamic country. All these things are recorded in the history."

"If government is so interested in projecting its religious tolerance, it should celebrate anniversaries of people like Shishunala Sharif (a saint poet and philosopher who lived between 1819-1889), instead of celebrating birthdays of controversial persons," he said.

On December 22, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had said that the government has decided to celebrate "Tipu Jayanti" and the date would be decided shortly.