Lucknow: With the opposition's growing clamour over rape accused MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar's expulsion from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), after an FIR was lodged against him in connection with an accident that claimed two lives and injured two others including the survivor of the Unnao rape case, the saffron party on Tuesday stated that it had suspended the lawmaker long back.
"Sengar was suspended by the party earlier and there is no change in his status," Uttar Pradesh BJP president Swatantra Dev Singh informed.
"There is no change in the position of the party and the government, which is standing with the victim of the Unnao (rape) case," he said, adding that all possible help was also being extended to the accident victims, undergoing treatment in a hospital here, in the state capital.
The demand for Sengar's expulsion from the ruling BJP was led by Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who, in a tweet this morning, said: "For God's sake, Mr Prime Minister, divest this criminal and his brother of the political power your party is giving them."
On Monday, Priyanka Gandhi, who is the Congress general secretary in-charge of eastern Uttar Pradesh, had said, "What is the BJP waiting for? Why has this man not been expelled from their party even when his name is in the latest FIR in the Unnao Rape Case?"
With the party leadership taking this stand, Congressmen came out against the BJP in Lucknow staging a dharna and demanding Sengar's expulsion from the saffron party.