SHILLONG – The Meghalaya BJP is preparing for its biggest political expansion in years just as the party is again having to distance itself from a religious controversy.
The latest case involves Sanjay Sharma, whom the state BJP has accused of an “irresponsible” act after an alleged insult to the Bible. Chief spokesperson Mariahom Kharkrang said people with a “narrow, communal mindset” have no place in the BJP and urged the authorities to take action. The party is checking whether Sharma remains a primary member after he resigned from his organisational post on May 8. If he does, the BJP says disciplinary action will follow.
It is not the first time the Meghalaya BJP has had to confront a religious controversy.
In December 2024, social-media influencer Akash Sagar entered the Church of Epiphany at Mawlynnong, went to the altar and shouted “Jai Shri Ram” while filming the incident. Police registered an FIR after a complaint by activist Angela Rangad. The Meghalaya BJP condemned Sagar’s conduct and urged police to act. Police later said they were trying to arrest him, but a January 2025 report said he had still not been arrested.
The case was different from the present controversy. Sagar was not established as a BJP member, and the criminal case was handled by the police. But the episode remains part of the political record against which another BJP condemnation is now being judged.
In February 2026, senior BJP leader and former national secretary Sunil Deodhar addressed an Indigenous Faith Conference at Pynter in Pynursla. His remarks concerning Christianity and Jesus Christ triggered complaints and protests. Meghalaya BJP general secretary Wankitbok Pohshna asked Deodhar to explain and apologise. Deodhar later expressed regret and said he respected Jesus Christ and the Christian community.
The three cases are not interchangeable. Sagar was a social-media influencer, Deodhar was a senior BJP leader, while Sharma is a former BJP office-bearer whose present membership is being checked. The responses have also differed. But each episode has placed the party in the familiar position of having to publicly distance itself from conduct involving people connected to its wider political space.
The political expansion makes the issue harder for the Meghalaya BJP to brush aside. Former UDP general secretary Jemino Mawthoh is joining the party on September 12, while nine of the UDP’s 12 MLAs are reportedly negotiating a possible move. The BJP is preparing to absorb a sizeable block of regional political leadership while still struggling to demonstrate where its organisational line is drawn when religious provocation comes from people within its political orbit.
A party cannot demand the political weight of a larger organisation while treating accountability as a matter of issuing statements after every controversy. The more leaders and workers the BJP brings in, the less convincing it becomes to simply distance the party from each fresh incident and wait for the public anger to pass.
Meghalaya has already seen the sequence: an incident, public outrage, a BJP condemnation, and then uncertainty over what followed. In Deodhar’s case, the state unit demanded an explanation and an apology. In the Mawlynnong case, the police investigation became the central issue. With Sharma, the BJP is again checking membership before deciding what disciplinary action is possible.
The BJP wants to expand its political base in Meghalaya, but expansion also brings greater scrutiny of the people it brings into the organisation. If every religious controversy ends with a condemnation and a promise to act, the party will eventually have to explain what happens after the statement.
