Former MP and BJP motormouth Sanjeev Balyan, key accused in the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots that facilitated Narendra Modi’s rise to power the following year, has indirectly challenged his party barely a year before the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections. Som, MLA from Sardhana in Meerut for two terms starting 2012, had earlier blamed Balyan for his defeat in the 2022 Assembly elections. Balyan later served the Modi government from 2014 till 2017, and from 2019 to 2024, as minister of state for various departments. “We didn’t like the way Mann attacked Modi from the same platform and Balyan was seen smiling. Beniwal, Rashtriya Loktantrik Party MP from Nagaur in Rajasthan, had left the BJP during the farmers’ movement of 2020-21.

Source: The Telegraph March 31, 2026 06:33 UTC