Sangeet Som did not have permission to hold rally in Kairana and was immediately stopped by the UP administration.
Highlights
- BJP leader Sangeet Som and SP's Atul Pradhan's rallies to Kairana stopped
- Som gives 20-day ultimatum to bring back the people who left the town
- Kairana has been tense after a BJP lawmaker alleged a 'Hindu exodus'
At around 11.30 am on Friday, two political rallies began from Meerut and Sardana, Uttar Pradesh towns about 22 km apart. Both Sangeet Som of the BJP and Atul Pradhan of the Samajwadi Party said they were leading party workers to Kairana in western UP, where prohibitory orders are in place.
Both politicians did not have permission to hold their rallies or
yatras and were immediately stopped by the UP administration.
Sangeet Som, who was leading hundreds of BJP workers in his "Nirbhaya yatra," was stopped barely two km away from his home in Sardana, his parliamentary constituency, and said he was calling off his rally because he is a law-abiding citizen. But he also issued a 20-day ultimatum to the UP government to ensure that "people who've been forced to migrate from Kairana" are brought back within that time.
Otherwise he and his supporters would hit the streets in protest again, warned Mr Som, who was arrested in 2013 for allegedly spreading inflammatory videos during the Muzaffarnagar riots that left more than 60 people dead. The lawmaker is out on bail.
Kairana, a western UP town not far from Muzaffarnagar, has been tense since another BJP lawmaker Hukum Singh alleged that close to 400 people have left it after attacks and threats of extortion. He had called it a "Hindu exodus" from the Muslim-dominated Kairana, but later said it was "not a communal but a law and order issue."
UP's ruling Samajwadi Party has denied any exodus. "No one migrated from Kairana or anywhere in UP; we have intelligence and other reports," said Samajwadi Party spokesman and senior UP minister Shivpal Yadav.
He said those who had left town had done so for "professional reasons and we will not let the BJP vitiate the atmosphere," also adding, "After the Gujarat riots many people migrated. Sangeet Som and Modi ji should first worry about that."
The Sadhbhavna Rally of about 500, led by local SP leader Atul Pradhan, who set out from Meerut for Kairana today was also stopped by the district administration.