3 min readLucknowJan 31, 2026 09:29 AM IST
First published on: Jan 30, 2026 at 07:26 PM IST
High-voltage drama unfolded in Uttar Pradesh’s Mahoba on Friday when BJP’s Charkhari MLA Brijbhushan Rajput and his supporters stopped the cavalcade of state Jal Shakti Minister Swatantra Dev Singh over “dug-up roads and pending development projects” in the district.
The situation escalated when the MLA and his supporters were confronted by the police personnel in the minister’s security and a heated argument followed between them.
The incident took place in the district headquarters when the minister was returning after attending a programme of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the RSS’s student wing. He was also to launch a rural drinking water project under the Jal Jeevan Mission at Lilwahi village of the district.
Later, the minister got down from his vehicle and assured the MLA that action would be taken against the “guilty officials” if works were pending for long. But when they did not budge, Singh, a former BJP state president, asked his party MLA to come along and show him the pending works and promised that he would suspend the officials “on the spot”.
One of the main grievance of Rajput, two-term MLA from Charkhari, was over pending projects under the Jal Jeevan Mission in his constituency.
“I will visit 40 villages with you. If water is not found there, I will suspend the guilty officials. If roads are left dug up, I will suspend those responsible,” the minister is heard saying in a video.
When the MLA, also accompanied by locals and village pradhans, showed him “papers” of dug-up roads and pending projects, the minister said he would personally visit the villages. When the situation continued to escalate, the minister was seen holding the MLA’s hand and asking him to sit in his car.
Before leaving the spot, the MLA told mediapersons, “Works under the Har Ghar Nal scheme are pending. Roads are dug up. We are taking the minister to the spot.”
The minister and Rajput went to the Mahoba District Magistrate’s office, and held discussion over the pending works, it was learnt.
Taking a dig at the ruling party in the state, Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav shared videos of the incident that went viral on social media, alleging that the minister was held “hostage” by the MLA of his own party.
“It is not the double-engine BJP government in UP but it’s a government whose compartments are clashing with each other,” he posted on X.
“While the BJP ministers and MLAs are busy making money and grabbing land, none is working for the public or development. They are blaming each other to escape public anger. The fact that a BJP MLA held a minister of his own government hostage shows that their party is headed for a defeat in the next elections. This face-off is not an isolated incident involving BJP MLAs and ministers in just one Assembly constituency. This is happening in every constituency of the state,” he wrote.
(Left to right) Uttar Pradesh Jal Shakti Minister Swatantra Dev Singh and BJP MLA from Charkhari, Brijbhushan Rajput (Source: File/ FB) 
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