A cancelled ‘love jihad’ yatra: In new west UP plans, BJP reins in ex-MLA Sangeet Som

Som, a Thakur twice elected from Sardhana in Meerut, admitted the party had asked him to stand down. “I have not shelved my proposed yatra from Meerut’s Salwa to Ghaziabad on June 30 but just postponed it, as it coincided with the party’s ongoing mahasampark abhiyan (mass contact programme, to mark nine years of the Modi government).”

The BJP leader added that the issues he is trying to raise are very pertinent. “The rising population of a particular community is a very serious matter, and if we do not take strict measures right now, the Hindus in the country will become a minority,” he said.

The BJP’s trade cell chief, Vineet Sharda, admitted the party asked Som to defer the yatra, and claimed that the BJP as a party “never discriminates on caste or communal lines”.

Citing distribution of ration and other welfare schemes being run by BJP governments at the Centre and in the state as examples of their lack of bias, Sharda said: “The party leadership asked Som to refrain from holding such programmes which may portray that our party is partial towards one community. We are focused on winning next year’s general elections to ensure a third successive victory for our Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and such shows may harm the party’s prospects at the hustings.”

Of the total 126 Assembly seats in west UP, the BJP had won 100 in the 2017 Assembly polls. In 2022, this came down to 85, with the SP and RLD forging a strong combination to win 41 seats.

The BJP lost all three seats in the Shamli district in 2022, four of the seven seats in Meerut and four of the six seats in Muzaffarnagar. All three are Jat-dominated districts, with a large Muslim presence.

Som was among the BJP candidates who lost, defeated by the Samajwadi Party’s Atul Pradhan in Sardhana. The loss was quite a setback for the leader once considered the BJP’s poster boy for Hindutva in western Uttar Pradesh.

With the SP and RLD alliance holding strong, the BJP high command, which is making an aggressive push to woo Pasmanda Muslims, is seen as being cautious in its activities in the area. The wrestlers’ protest could also have an impact on the party here.

A former SP Meerut unit chief, Rajpal Singh, said: “The BJP is doing everything to win Muslims. Whatever they get from this community will be a bonus for them as it has not been getting even 1% of the minority votes.”

The SP’s current Meerut chief, Jaipal Singh, said the BJP would not succeed in its attempts. “The party is day-dreaming if it thinks it can corner a chunk of the votes from a particular community in the next general elections,” Singh said, adding that the BJP should not ride high on the victory of some of its Muslim candidates for councillor and palika parishad head seats in recent urban local body polls. “The Muslims have always been with the Samajwadi Party and will continue to vote in favour of our party.”

Som was named by the Justice Vishnu Sahai Committee that probed the Muzaffarnagar riots as one of the people who made provocatory statements in the run-up to the violence. The Commission probed the causes for the riots that had led to the killing of 62 people and the displacement of nearly 50,000.

Som was acquitted in the case, and the National Security Act against him was also later withdrawn.

He told The Indian Express: “I have been raising the issue of the manifold rise in the population of a particular community for the last 10 years, and this cannot be solved unless the government comes out with a Bill to check population explosion. I will take the permission of the party high command and hold a yatra at a future date.”