Rape accused MLA features in I-Day ad with Modi

Kanpur: Rape accused MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar may have been expelled from the Bharatiya Janata Party but he found a prominent place along with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in an advertisement given by a party leader on the occasion of Independence Day.

In the advertisement inserted in the local edition of a leading daily, Ungu Nagar Panchayat chairman Anuj Kumar Dixit used the picture of the Bangarmau legislator and his wife Sangeeta Singh Sengar, who is the chairman of the zila panchayat.

Ungu falls under the the Bangarmau assembly segment and it was Sengar who had reportedly brought Dixit into the BJP fold.

The advertisement also has pictures of Union home minister Amit Shah, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath, state BJP chief Swatantra Dev Singh and Uttar Pradesh assembly speaker Hriday Narain Dixit.

Dixit, when approached by the media, defended himself for giving Sengar's picture. He said, "It is there as he is the MLA of our area." The BJP has distanced itself from the controversy.

Party spokesperson Shalabhmani Tripathi said, "It might have been someone's personal choice to give Sengar's photograph. It has nothing to do with the party or the state government." "Whatever had to be done by the party or by the government, has been done. We have no sympathy for Sengar," he said in Lucknow.

The advertisement is being seen as a fresh embarrassment to the BJP, days after its Hardoi legislator Ashish Singh Ashu sympathised with Sengar and wished him to overcome his "difficult times".