With both the Gurjars and the Rajputs claiming the legacy of a ninth-century ruler, Mihir Bhoj, the ruling Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) in Haryana appears to be in a tight spot.

Conflicting claims over the caste of the iconic ruler have divided the two communities ahead of the Lok Sabha and Assembly polls due next year.

Both the Gurjars and the Rajputs claim that Mihir Bhoj belonged to their castes. To settle the issue, Rajputs are demanding the formation of an expert panel of historians to determine the caste of Raja Mihir Bhoj.

Nursing a grouse against the BJP for heavily relying on non-Jat voters in the state for its electoral success, the Rajput community on Wednesday announced a boycott of the saffron party in the Lok Sabha and Assembly polls due next year if their demands, which include the formation of an expert committee on the issue, were not accepted within 15 days.

The other demands of the community include the termination of services of cops responsible for lathicharge on the Rajput youths who were opposing the unveiling of the statue of Raja Mihir Bhoj in Kaithal as its plaque read ‘Gurjar Pratihar Samrat Mihir” or Gurjar king.

A Gurjar heads the Kaithal district BJP unit and the Kaithal constituency is represented in the Assembly by a member of the same community. Rajput community leaders allege that the BJP is siding with the Gurjar community in the matter.

State president of the Haryana Pratinidhi Sabha, Col Davinder Singh (retd), said the Rajput community has been demanding that ‘Gurjar’ should not be written on Raja Mihir Bhoj’s statue. He alleged the BJP was not taking any action or stand on the issue due to political pressure (from the Gurjar community).

The Rajput community is also seeking resignation of Kaithal district BJP president Ashok Gurjar and action against the BJP legislator from Kaithal, Lila Ram Gujjar, who were part of the unveiling the statue unveiling ceremony at the  Dhand Chowk in the Kaithal town to mark the birth anniversary of the ruler in July this year.

A day before the statue was unveiled on 20 July, Rajput community members staged a protest in support of the demand for the removal of Gurjar word from the plague and the police had to resort to lathicharge to prevent the Rajputs from reaching close to the statue installed on the demand of the Akhil Bhartiya Veer Gurjar Sabha.

On their part, various forums of the Gurjar community call for “no compromise with Gurjar name and Gurjar history”.

At the unveiling of the statue, BJP’s Kaithal MLA Lila Ram Gujjar was quoted as saying, “There is solid proof that Mihir Bhoj was a Gurjar Samrat who had ruled India when Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and Burma were also part of the country.”

“The Rajput community members can’t be tampering with history today. They are our brothers, but they should also exercise restraint while making comments,” he had said.