A Samajwadi Party leader in this area has been arrested by police for calling to “burn” an Uttar Pradesh minister and his home, an official said on Sunday. His warning came after a recent altercation in which the leader of the Samajwadi Party claimed that Dalit corporators from rival parties had been beaten during a board meeting of the Meerut Municipal Corporation. Social media users shared a video allegedly featuring SP leader Mukesh Siddharth making the contentious claim.

“If Minister of State Somendra Tomar is not arrested by January 10, then his house should be burnt, his car should be burnt, he should be burnt and the city should be burnt,” claimed the leader of the SP. “This is just a spark, when it becomes a volcano, the government will also come to know,” he added. The remarks were allegedly made by Siddharth, a former vice-chairman of the Uttar Pradesh Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe Commission, to reporters on Saturday during a demonstration at the Meerut collectorate.

The Superintendent of Police claims that Siddharth is evading capture and that attempts are being made to apprehend him. On December 30, during a meeting of the Meerut Municipal Corporation Board, members of the opposition parties and the BJP came to blows. Leaders of the BJP and the opposition filed complaints against one another, accusing the other of instigating the altercation. The opposition party council members are accused of pushing and beating BJP Legislative Council member Dharmendra Bhardwaj during the meeting. The BJP council members then allegedly became agitated and attacked the BSP council member from ward 36.

During the altercation, Ashish Chaudhary and Kuldeep, also known as Kirti Ghopla, an SP councillor from Ward 31, were allegedly beaten. In addition to Bhardwaj, the opposition council members accused Somendra Tomar, the minister of state for energy, of assaulting Dalit council members. On Monday, Jayant Chaudhary, the president of Rashtriya Lok Dal, met with the Dalit council members in Zahidpur.

Ajay Rai, the president of the Uttar Pradesh Congress, and Chandrashekhar Azad, the national head of the Azad Samaj Party, had already paid the Dalit council members a visit.