President of BJP’s Ghaziabad unit sacked over protests against interfaith marriage

The move comes after he had participated in protests in Raj Nagar on December 22 against the wedding of a Hindu woman and a Muslim man.

The state unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has removed the party’s Ghaziabad city president, Ajay Sharma, from the post. The move comes after he had participated in protests in Raj Nagar on December 22 against the wedding of a Hindu woman and a Muslim man.

The protesters had tried to disrupt the wedding and a reception function held at the bride’s residence in Raj Nagar and had termed the wedding a case of ‘Love Jihad.’ (Sakib Ali/HT File)

The protesters had tried to disrupt the wedding and a reception function held at the bride’s residence in Raj Nagar and had termed the wedding a case of ‘Love Jihad.’

The protests were held by Sharma along with BJP workers and members of several right-wing organisations, who were opposed to the idea of the interfaith marriage, which was performed by the couple and also consented by their families.

“I will abide by the decision of the party leaders and I will continue to serve the party as a worker. They maintained that I should not have participated in the protest. I will further forward my point of view to the state unit leaders,” Sharma said.

In place of Sharma, the party has decided to give the responsibility of the city unit’s president to Man Singh Goswami, a man who served as ‘mahamantri’ under the city unit led by Sharma.

During the protest on December 22, protesters had also clashed with the police and had also tried to disrupt the wedding reception of the newly wedded couple at the bride’s house in Raj Nagar.

Following the ruckus, police force from nearly six police stations was deployed at the spot while the blockade by protesters also resulted in a major traffic diversion on Hapur Chungi to Meerut Road.

The bride’s father, who is a chartered accountant, lodged an FIR against 50-60 unidentified persons while police themselves became a complainant in the second FIR, in which Sharma, 12 others and another 100 unidentified were charged under stringent sections of IPC.

Following the FIRs, Sharma had also approached the state BJP unit and said that he had also conveyed the incident to chief minister Yogi Adityanath.

However, the police are yet to make an arrest in the incident. “Our investigation is continuing in both cases and action will be taken accordingly,” HN Singh, senior superintendent of police, said.

The decision to remove Sharma was taken by the president of the party’s state unit, Mahendra Nath Pandey. The letter, signed by state general secretary Vidya Shankar Sonkar, said that the decision to replace Sharma was taken in view of recent incidents in Ghaziabad.