Amid BJP churn in UP, how a row between Sanjeev Balyan, Sangeet Som has laid bare the Rajput-Jat faultline

Balyan, who lost the seat to SP’s Harendra Singh Malik by 24,672 votes, told The Indian Express on Thursday, “He (Sangeet Som) supported the SP candidate in the election. The atmosphere in west UP was spoiled through panchayats (of the Rajput community) and he was the sutradhar (facilitator) of these panchayats. That divided the sarv samaj. That affected the results in Kairana and Saharanpur also.” While the Congress’s Imran Masood won Saharanpur, the SP’s Iqra Choudhary bagged Kairana. In the run-up to the elections, Balyan faced boycott calls from Rajputs angry over alleged Jat dominance in the party and the alleged sidelining of Rajputs, saying it reflected in the ticket distribution.

Balyan who is a Jat said the consolidation of Muslim votes behind the Opposition, the division among Hindus, and low voter turnout were key factors in his defeat. However, he added, that the alliance with Jayant Chaudhary’s Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) helped the BJP. Of the 19 Lok Sabha seats in west BJP, the BJP won 10 and the RLD two. The BJP had won 12 of these seats in 2019. At the time, the RLD was an ally of the SP and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).

Meanwhile, Som who is a Rajput dismissed Balyan’s allegations and claimed that he lost the parliamentary election because he had lost the support of BJP workers. “Not a single BJP worker liked Balyan and even people 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 told The Indian Express.

Asked about the former MP accusing him of supporting the SP, Som said, “Balyan himself has been an SP supporter.” The former MLA said the central leadership had assigned him the responsibility of mobilising voters in Sardhana, claiming that in the constituency the BJP and the SP received almost equal votes. According to official data, the BJP lost Sardhana by 45 votes. Of the rest of the Assembly segments, the BJP won Muzaffarnagar and Khatauli while the SP took home Budhana and Charthawal.

“In an organisational meeting in the presence of UP Chief Minister (Yogi Adityanath) and the state BJP president, Balyan himself demanded that there should be no interference in Budhana and Charthawal Assembly segments and he looked after poll management in both these segments. He lost both, including Budhana where he lives. He even lost in Soram village in Budhana which is the biggest village of Jats. How can he blame me for his defeat?” Som asked, adding that BJP workers became inactive in western UP and did not distribute voter slips. “The division of votes and inactiveness of workers were also the reasons for defeat.”

Dismissing the allegation that he orchestrated the Rajput community’s panchayats against the BJP, Som said, “I did not attend any of these panchayats. I did the damage-control exercise, convinced people and got votes polled for the party. The BJP did not lose in Rajput villages”.

On Tuesday, while Som was addressing a press conference to respond to Balyan’s initial allegations, a statement drafted on the former MLA’s letterhead was distributed outside his home. In the statement, Balyan was accused of corruption. Som on Thursday distanced himself from it and said an “unidentified person” had distributed the statement. Som said he had registered a police complaint against the misuse of his letterhead. Balyan too dismissed the allegations mentioned in the statement.

Muzaffarnagar is not the only constituency where BJP leaders have blamed sabotage by their party colleagues for the party’s defeat. Some of the other constituencies — some outside west UP — where such allegations have come to the fore are Rampur, Mohanlalganj, Shrawasti, Lalganj, Sambhal, Basti, Barabanki, Faizabad, Sultanpur, Allahabad, Kaushambi, Badaun, and Sitapur.