Mahapanchayat held in support of jailed politician Shrikant Tyagi in UP's Noida

The Tyagi community held a large gathering in Noida on Sunday at a 'mahapanchayat' held in support of Shrikant Tyagi, who claimed to be a BJP functionary and was arrested earlier this month for hurling violent abuses at a female resident of his housing complex.
At the mahapanchayat held in the Maharshi Ramleela Ground in Bhangel, Noida, organisers said more than 600,000 people from Uttar Pradesh, New Delhi, Rajasthan, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh participated.

Their primary demands included removal of Gangster Act imposed on Tyagi, expunging of cases against nine other Tyagi youths who had visited his society in his support and were booked, action on police officials accused of harassing Tyagi's wife and aunt and arrest of Samajwadi Party leader Sunil Sajan who was seen making derogatory remarks against the community on a media show. A first information report (FIR) has been lodged against Sajan in Ghaziabad.

People who attended the event included Bhumihar Brahmins, another sub caste of Brahmins along with Tyagis, and the role that BJP MP from Noida, Mahesh Sharma, played in his arrest was also questioned, with some calling the entire incident his “orchestration”.

“The fight is for our self-respect and pride which has been attacked in the entire incident,” Raj Kumar Tyagi, co-ordinator of the Sanyukt Tyagi Swabhiman Morcha told ET. “There is veritable anger against the BJP as we have been their supporters since 1992 but so far they have not taken cognisance of our woes.”

BJP MP from Muzaffarnagar, Sanjeev Balyan, told media persons, “While lawful action should be taken, we do realise how his family members were treated was not right. The Tyagi community has always supported the BJP and many MPs like me have been brought to power by them. They are our voters and if there is some disappointment, we will definitely sit and talk it out with them.”

Separately, in Ghaziabad, senior leaders of UP BJP, including the two deputy chief ministers and former BJP UP chief Swatantra Dev Singh, along with all MPs, MLAs and functionaries of the western UP and Braj region, assembled for a meeting as well as to welcome the newly appointed general secretary (organisation) Dharmpal Singh. However, the issue of Tyagis was not discussed, said a party functionary.