Noida MP's security being assessed

Uttar Pradesh is assessing the security of Noida MP Mahesh Sharma, officials said Tuesday.

The Uttar Pradesh government has sought a report from the Noida district administration of reported threat to the life of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and sitting MP Mahesh Sharma.

The development comes in backdrop of the union home ministry seeking details from the Akhilesh Yadav government on the matter.

Sources said intelligence agencies scaled up the security threat to Sharma, also owner of Kailash hospital in Noida, a suburb of the national capital.

With a district BJP leader being killed some time back, assessment of threat to various BJP leaders is being carried out, an official told IANS while listing Sharma as one of the leaders "who needed a security upgrade".

Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) Mukul Goyal confirmed the development and said that a security overhaul, if needed, will be undertaken once the report by Noida police and the district administration is received.

Sharma is a close associate of union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and owes his ascendancy in the BJP to Singh.

BJP leader and Dadri Nagar Panchayat chairman Geeta Pandit's husband Vijay Pandit (37) was shot dead June 8 by four unidentified people in Dadri area, after which a mob set ablaze 16 vehicles near a police station in protest. Pandit was close to Mahesh Sharma.

After BJP's stunning victory in the Lok Sabha elections when it won 71 of the 80 seats in UP, at least four BJP leaders have been killed, in what the party alleges are vendetta killings.