Sanjeev Balyan and Sangeet Som: Key BJP faces in west UP, at loggerheads after party’s poor poll show

The BJP rose as a formidable political force in western UP in 2014, a year after the Muzaffarnagar riots. In the rest of the crucial heartland state too, in 2014, the BJP turned a new leaf, as it swept the Lok Sabha polls riding the Narendra Modi wave. In the process the BJP routed key regional players like the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), which had between them held power in the state for over a decade.

Two BJP leaders — Sanjeev Balyan and Sangeet Som — rose to prominence in the western UP region at the time. Both hail from the Muzaffarnagar belt. Both were accused in the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots. While Balyan is a Jat leader, Som belongs to the Rajput community.

With the BJP having faced reverses in the recent Lok Sabha polls in UP after a decade of absolute dominance in the state, the two leaders have now made news for being at loggerheads with each other.

Their verbal spat began after Balyan lost the Muzaffarnagar Lok Sabha seat by about 25,000 votes to Harendra Malik of the SP. He accused Som, who is a former MLA from Sardhana in Muzaffarnagar, of being behind the Rajput panchayats being against the BJP before the polls which, he claimed, split the Hindu votes.

“He (Som) supported the SP candidate in the election. He facilitated the Rajput community panchayats which spoilt the atmosphere in western UP and divided the votes. This affected the results in Kairana and Saharanpur too,” Balyan alleged.

Som retorted, “Not a single BJP worker likes Balyan. People even told the party leadership that he should not be given the ticket. He did not work for party men in the past 10 years. He lost because BJP workers became inactive.”

He also said, “At an organisational meeting in the presence of UP Chief