The spat between a strong Sahu Samaj in Chhattisgarh and Bharatiya Janata Party MP Saroj Pandey who has been recently appointed as party's national women cell chief, took further an ugly turn on Thursday as three persons of the Pandey group were hurt in the stone pelting by members of Sahu Samaj during a programme organised at village Taralim here despite warnings of boycott by rival group.
The police have arrested nearly half a dozen people of the Sahu Samaj on the charges of posing a threat to law and order situation and misbehaving with the elected epresentative.
After the scuffle between the two sides the village has been turned into a police chhawni with deployment of additional forces as tension prevailed in the area against the arrest of villagers even if Saroj Pandey cancelled the function in view of the tension and Sahu Samaj members also ended protest.
Notably, peeved at Pandey's alleged verbal and physical abuse of the district vice president of Sahu samaj Ram Kumar Sahu at Village Renga a couple of days back, members of Sahu Samaj, a dominating section of Other Backward Class as well as Swabhiman Manch formed by late Tarachand Sahu had decided to boycott Saroj Pandey in their social functions. They also vowed to reach every Sahu household to convey them the alleged derogatory attitude of the MP towards Sahu samaj and announced to take action who would work against the decision of the Samaj.
Reports said that Pandey's supporters on Thursday organised a function at village Taralim and as per their earlier decision, hundreds of members of Sahu Samaj reached the venue of the function and started protesting against her. When the supporters of Pandey allegedly pushed those who were raising slogan against the MP, the enraged protestors started pelting stones. In the stone pelting 3 of the Pandey supporters were severely injured and were rushed to hospital. Using mild force against the protesters the police arrest some of them and also released them after they ended their protest.