BJP leaders vent unease over Yogi outfit's 'dominance'

Lynching of an elderly Muslim man in Uttar Pradesh's communally sensitive Bulandshahar district allegedly by the activists of Hindu Yuva Vahini (HYV), an outfit formed by chief minister Yogi Adityanath, for helping two lovers of different communities elope, found mention, triggered alarm bells within a section of the state BJP leaders, who vented their unease on the dominance and misdeeds of the Vahini, though in a subtle way, in the recently concluded state BJP executive committee meeting.

The old man, identified as Ghulam Ahmed, a resident of Sohi village in the district, was beaten to death by alleged members of HYV on Tuesday. Ahmed had allegedly helped two lovers, who hailed from different communities, in their elopement. Police on Wednesday arrested 14 persons in connection with the lynching.

Incidentally it was not the first time that Vahini activists had turned vigilantes since Adityanath assumed charge of the state in March this year following BJP's landslide win in the assembly polls.

Vahini members had earlier publicly assaulted a Muslim youth and dragged him to the police station accusing him of what they termed 'love jihad'.

Last month scores of HYV activists had barged into a church in Maharajganj district during a prayer and assaulted the priests there alleging that they were ''forcing'' people to convert to christianity.

UP BJP president Keshav Prasad Maurya, while speaking at the executive committee meeting, dropped enough indication that he was referring to HYV, when he said that some people, who were not part of the BJP, were trying to sideline genuine party workers and bringing bad name to the government.

''Any attempt to sideline the genuine workers will not be tolerated...we will not allow outsiders to push our workers behind...we will not spare backstabbers,'' Maurya said.

Though Yogi Adityanath was also present, when Maurya made the remarks, the former chose to remain silent.

State BJP sources said that similar concerns had been aired during the party leaders' meeting with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) functionaries here a few days back.

Sources said that Adityanath had, during his recent visit to Gorakhpur, had a meeting with Vahini office bearers and asked them to stay away from controversial issues including 'Love Jihad', conversion and cow vigilantism.