The Bharatiya Janata Party faced an embarrassing situation when tainted lawmaker Kuldeep Singh Sengar, who has been expelled from the party, found a prominent place along with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, in an advertisement.
The advertisement, given by BJP leader Anuj Dixit for greeting people on Independence Day and Raksha Bandhan, carried pictures of the Prime Minister and the Chief Minister alongside that of Sengar.
“Sengar is the MLA of our area that is why his picture is there. Till the time he is our MLA, his picture can be put up in advertisement,” said Dixit, justifying his decision to give the picture of Sengar in that advertisement.
Sengar has been charged with raping a teenage girl and murdering her father. After much hue and cry was raised, the BJP sacked Sengar from the party.
BJP spokesperson Rakesh Tripathi also claimed that there was nothing wrong in publishing the pictures of top BJP leadership along with that of the Unnao MLA as though the MLA is an accused in the rape case he has not yet been convicted.
“The advertisement was released at a local level and it has nothing to do with the state unit of the party,” he said and asked why people do not raise questions on putting up pictures of Lalu Prasad Yadav, who is in jail, on big hoardings when he is convicted. “Rahul Gandhi went and met him (Lalu Prasad) and no one questioned this meeting,” he said.
