Sanjeev Kumar Balyan
Dr. Sanjeev Balyan is a veterinarian-turned-politician and a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party. He represented the Muzaffarnagar (Lok Sabha constituency) in the 16th and 17th Lok Sabha, winning the seat in the 2014 and 2019 Indian general elections, before losing his bid for a third term in 2024. Over his decade as an MP he held several Union ministerial portfolios, including Minister of State for Agriculture and Food Processing Industries (2014), Minister of State for Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation (2016–2017), and Minister of State in the Ministry of Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries (2019–2024). Dr. Balyan hails from a Jat farming family and is regarded as one of the prominent Jat political figures of western Uttar Pradesh.
Career
Dr. Balyan trained as a veterinary scientist, completing earlier veterinary degrees before earning a Ph.D. in Veterinary Anatomy from Haryana Agricultural University. Before entering full-time politics, he worked as an Assistant Professor and as a veterinary surgeon with the Haryana Government. This scientific background later shaped the portfolios he was given in the Union government, particularly Agriculture and Animal Husbandry.
Personal life
Dr. Balyan was born on 23 June 1972 in Kutbi village of Muzaffarnagar district, into a Jat farming family. Surendra Pal Singh is his father, and Vivek Balyan is his younger brother. He is married to Sunita Balyan.
Political career
Entry into politics
Balyan's political rise followed the communal violence that struck Muzaffarnagar and neighbouring Shamli district in August–September 2013, in which dozens were killed and tens of thousands displaced. The polarisation that followed is widely seen as having reshaped western UP's politics ahead of the 2014 general election, forming the backdrop to his emergence as the BJP's candidate from Muzaffarnagar.
2014 election and first ministerial term
Balyan won Muzaffarnagar for the BJP in 2014, succeeding Kadir Rana of the Bahujan Samaj Party. On 26 May 2014 he was sworn in as Minister of State for Agriculture and for Food Processing Industries. He held Food Processing until November 2014 and continued as Minister of State for Agriculture until July 2016, when he was moved to Minister of State for Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation under Cabinet Minister Uma Bharti, a post he held until September 2017. He held no ministerial portfolio for the remainder of that term.
2019 re-election and second ministerial term
In 2019, Balyan was re-elected from Muzaffarnagar in a closely fought straight contest against Rashtriya Lok Dal chief Chaudhary Ajit Singh — backed jointly by the SP, BSP and Congress — winning by a narrow margin of about 6,500 votes. On 30 May 2019 he was appointed Minister of State in the Ministry of Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries, a post he held for the rest of the second Modi government. In this role he was associated with livestock-development programmes such as the Rashtriya Gokul Mission for conserving indigenous cattle and buffalo breeds, alongside efforts to expand dairy and inland fisheries production.
2024 Lok Sabha election
Seeking a third term, Balyan contested Muzaffarnagar again in 2024. His campaign was complicated by public friction with senior BJP leader Sangeet Som, who declined to campaign for him — a rift widely cited as one factor affecting the party's effort in the seat. During the campaign, Balyan also spoke in favour of a national population-control policy and extending the Uniform Civil Code beyond Uttar Pradesh. He lost to Samajwadi Party candidate Harendra Singh Malik by a margin of 24,672 votes (about 41.4% to Malik's 43.6%), with BSP's Dara Singh Prajapati finishing third. The defeat ended his ten-year run as Muzaffarnagar's MP and his tenure as a Union minister.
Balyan is among a group of politicians — from the BJP, Samajwadi Party and elsewhere, along with religious figures such as Sadhvi Prachi and Yati Narsinghanand — facing prosecution over a 2013 mahapanchayat in Muzaffarnagar, on allegations of violating prohibitory orders and inciting communal tension. In January 2025, a special MP/MLA court framed charges against Balyan and 18 others in the case. This is separate from the many individual criminal cases tied to the killings and arson during the riots themselves, which have seen a mix of convictions and acquittals over the years.
Post-2024 activity
Balyan has remained active in the BJP after leaving Parliament. In August 2025, he contested — and narrowly lost — an internal election for an office-bearer post at the Constitution Club of India, an association for current and former MPs, to fellow BJP MP Rajiv Pratap Rudy.
Bio Data
His bio data (from his time as a Member of Parliament) can be accessed at the following web-page of Lok Sabha website -
http://164.100.47.194/Loksabha/Members/MemberBioprofileBrief.aspx?mpsno=4921
External links
References
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