Amid mounting public outrage over the road accident involving the Unnao rape survivor, the BJP announced on Tuesday that it had already suspended MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar from the party. Sengar has been in jail since April last year after the survivor accused him of raping her.
Swatantra Dev Singh, president of the Uttar Pradesh BJP unit, told news agency ANI that Sengar had been suspended following the allegations against him last year and would “stay suspended”. He added a CBI inquiry into the rape case was already under way.
Speaking to News18, BJP spokesperson Rakesh Tripathi claimed Sengar had been suspended following an inquiry by a BJP disciplinary committee after the allegations against him surfaced last year. He claimed disciplinary action “was taken against Kuldeep Singh Sengar last year itself”. Tripathi declared the BJP had not “issued any press release then”.
The statements by Swatantra Dev Singh and Tripathi come amid mounting criticism of the BJP's handling of the Unnao rape survivor's accident. Senior politicians, including Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi, have repeatedly targeted the BJP for not acting against Sengar.
In multiple tweets since the accident involving the Unnao rape survivor on Sunday, Priyanka asked why the BJP had not expelled Sengar. On Tuesday, Priyanka directly appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi “For God’s sake, Mr. Prime Minister, divest this criminal and his brother of the political power your party is giving them. Its still not too late.”
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Despite the BJP launching an inquiry on the allegations against Sengar, the party had not revealed about action taken against the MLA. If Sengar, who has been in jail since April last year, was expelled from the BJP, he would lose his position as a MLA. BJP Unnao MP Sakshi Maharaj had met Sengar at jail in June, evoking criticism, but no action against the Parliamentarian.
