Lok Sabha polls 2024: Tussle between Sangeet Som and Sanjiv Baliyan may queer BJP's electoral pitch in Western UP

Lucknow: With less than a week left for the first phase of Lok Sabha polls, the ongoing tussle between firebrand BJP leader Sangeet Som, who hails from 'thakur' community and saffron party MP and candidate from Muzaffarnagar Lok Sabha seat Sanjeev Baliyan, a 'Jat', threatens to queer BJP's electoral pitch in western Uttar Pradesh.

Som, a prominent 'thakur' leader and former MLA from Sardhana assembly seat in Muzaffarnagar Lok Sabha constituency, has refused to campaign for Baliyan saying that he did not consider him (Baliyan) a leader of his 'stature'.

The two leaders were also engaged in a sharp verbal duel with Som virtually dubbing Baliyan a 'goonda' while the latter compared Som with 'Shikhandi' (a character in the Hindu epic Mahabharat, who was born a female but changed her sex).

''I believe in the politics of development...I don't take help of goondas to win polls,'' Som said in a veiled reference to Baliyan. Baliyan too responded in kind. ''I challenge those opposing me to come out in the open and not attack me like Shikhandi (attacking from the back),'' he retorted.

The genesis of the tussle between the two leaders was said to be alleged attempts by Baliyan to 'promote' a 'thakur', who was close to him (Baliyan) in the villages dominated by the Thakur community in Sardhana, considered to be Som's bastion.

In an apparent bid to defuse the crisis, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath addressed an election rally at Sardhana in which both Baliyan and Som were present. Adityanath also spoke to the two leaders on the stage.

Som, however, continued his attack on Baliyan and even said that he would campaign for the BJP but not for Baliyan.

State BJP leaders said that the tussle between Som and Baliyan could damage the party's prospects in Meerut and Muzaffarnagar. Although Sardhana was an assembly segment under Muzaffarnagar Lok Sabha constituency, it was a part of Meerut district.

BJP was already facing the ire of the 'thakur' community, which had held a series of 'mahapanchayats' in the past few days to protest what it claimed 'ignoring' the interests of the community by the saffron party.