In the Saharanpur Lok Sabha constituency of Uttar Pradesh, both the primary contenders—the Samajwadi Party-Congress alliance and the BJP—are apprehensive about the potential polarization of voters. The BJP has nominated Raghav Lakhanpal Sharma, who previously contested from the same constituency in 2019 without success. This time, the party is banking on the belief that the presence of BSP s Majid Ali in the race will diminish the likelihood of Muslim votes consolidating in favor of Congress-SP alliance candidate
MLA Arun Narang
JALANDHAR: The issue of thrashing and stripping of Abohar MLA Arun Narang in Malout may have been between farmers and BJP, with several local leaders and members of a farm union being named in the FIR, yet there appears a consistent attempt to give it a communal colour and make it a Sikhs versus Hindus issue. There have been hate messages against Sikhs on social media platforms after the incident, some even referring to the massacre of November 1984 and several branding farmers as terrorists and Khalistanis.
Though farmers accused of assaulting Narang came from diverse communities and at least one prominent among them is a Brahmin, BKU (Sidhupur) block president Lakhanpal Sharma, yet nothing seems to be stopping a set of netizens from making it a Sikhs versus Hindus issue.