By Arun Anand,

New Delhi, Sep 1 (IANS) The arrest of two ABVP leaders for the murder of a college professor in Madhya Pradesh threaten to spark fresh tensions between the state's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and other constituents of the Hindu rightwing brotherhood, Sangh Parivar.

Two activists of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) were charged Thursday with the murder of Ujjain's Madhav College professor H.S. Sabharwal, who was allegedly beaten to death.

The ABVP is a frontal organisation of the Sangh Parivar and has considerable clout in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

"Many top BJP leaders and senior functionaries of RSS have been associated with ABVP at one time or the other. Many of them continue to maintain close links with it," a senior RSS functionary said.

Sources said the ABVP leadership is furious over the way Madhya Pradesh's BJP Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan handled the issue and allowed the media to tarnish the image of the organisation.

"The ABVP leadership is now keen that the RSS should intervene to salvage the situation," said a senior ABVP functionary.

"We are not at all satisfied with the knee-jerk reaction of the BJP chief minister in this case. The chief minister should have pulled up the local police and administration as they let the situation get out of control and dragged our organisation's name in this controversy," he added.

A section of ABVP even wants that Chouhan be removed from the chief minister's post and has said so to the RSS.

"We have a CD and photographs that clearly show that no ABVP activist was involved in the beating of Sabharwal. In fact, this CD shows that the Congress-backed National Students Union of India activists were involved," Sunil Bansal, general secretary in-charge of ABVP's Delhi and Rajasthan units, told IANS.

"The cases against our activists have been registered under pressure by the local police. Our activists had a heated discussion with Sabharwal but he was pushed and beaten up while going back home much later," he maintained.

The BJP, however, is fully backing the chief minister on the issue that has shocked the nation.

"The BJP wants the guilty to be punished regardless of their political affiliation," party spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad said.

"In this case the chief minister has been given a free hand to deal with the situation. It is a question of the image of the government and the party," added another BJP leader closely associated with party affairs in Madhya Pradesh.

Sabharwal was attacked Saturday, allegedly by student leaders angry with him over the cancellation of the student union elections. He later died in hospital.

The Ujjain police Thursday charged ABVP activists Shashi Ranjan Akela and Vimal Tomar under section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code in connection with his death.