Rashtriya Lok Dal leader Ajit Singh on Tuesday visited Muzaffarnagar’s Soram, where Union minister Sanjeev Kumar Balyan’s men had allegedly attacked villagers a day earlier, and demanded action against those behind the assault.
Balyan, the Union minister of state for animal husbandry, dairying and fisheries, struck back hours later, accusing the RLD of “vitiating the atmosphere”, linking those behind the Red Fort chaos on Republic Day with those who “resorted to violence” in Soram and alleging a conspiracy against him.
Balyan’s ploy of inviting himself to farmers’ family events to counter a Bharatiya Kisan Union call to boycott BJP members over the farmers’ struggle had sparked a clash on Monday, leaving four villagers hospitalised and triggering the gherao of a police station. Residents of Soram in western Uttar Pradesh had said Balyan’s “goons” and policemen had used sticks to thrash villagers protesting his visit.