Former Union Minister Dr. Sanjeev Balyan
| Photo Credit: AKHILESH KUMAR

The Uttar Pradesh government has restored Y-category state security for senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and former Union Minister Dr. Sanjeev Balyan following an uproar over withdrawal of the security cover.

In a letter to Principal Secretary (Home) on Friday, Nand Kishor Gurjar, BJP MLA from Loni, said removal of the security cover for Mr. Balyan was a disrespect to Western U.P. Describing the former Minister as a tall leader with influence across many States, Mr. Gurjar said some officers were working as opposition Samajwadi Party (SP) agents and harming the ruling BJP.

The former Union Minister is now under the cover of eight policemen, including four armed officers, at his residence in Muzaffarnagar.

The security cover was withdrawn after Mr. Balyan, a two-term Lok Sabha MP, earlier this week had a face-off with the local administration in Muzaffarnagar over a distillery unit proposed to be set up in Mansurpur village in the district.

“Mr. Balyan is a tall leader of Western U.P., with influence stretching from Haryana to Delhi to Rajasthan and many other states. He worked a lot from the BJP. During Muzaffarnagar riots when the Samajwadi Party (SP) and Azam Khan [jailed SP leader] committed atrocities, it was Balyan Ji who fought against them and went to jail. People in western U.P. like him. Some officers with the Samajwadi Party is doing it aimed at damaging the BJP. The security must be restored and action must be taken against the officer who withdrew security,” Mr. Gurjar wrote in the letter.

Mr. Balyan too had earlier written to the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister saying that the State government would be held responsible if he was attacked. “You are aware that during the 2024 parliamentary polls, I was attacked. If there is any such attack in the future, the State government would be responsible. If the police are behaving in this manner with a former Union Minister, what will be the condition of ordinary BJP workers?” he wrote.

In recent times, some leaders of the BJP and its allies under National Democratic Alliance (NDA) had been at loggerheads with the local administration over various issues, creating a buzz of discord in the ruling dispensation.