BJP says MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar was suspended, mum on his expulsion

NEW DELHI: Facing the heat in Parliament, the BJP in Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday disclosed that its MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar had been suspended from the party a while ago after rape allegations had surfaced against him but remained silent on whether he will be expelled from the party.

On the UP assembly website though, Sengar is mentioned as a BJP MLA in the list of members as on June 5 and the Assembly records also show him as a member of the Committee of Government Assurances as on 2018.

“He has been suspended and will remain suspended,” said BJP state president Swatantra Dev Singh. On Monday, he had not said so in as many words, saying “BJP has already acted against him and he is in jail”.


UP BJP spokesperson Rakesh Tripathi said Sengar was issued a show-cause notice by the party’s disciplinary committee last year after he was accused of rape and he had come to the BJP office then to offer his reply.

“The committee was not satisfied with the reply and had suspended him,” said Tripathi, but no date of the suspension was disclosed and BJP had chosen not to make the action public earlier.

The party has, however, not expelled Sengar, as it did recently with MLA Kunwar Pranav Singh ‘Champion’ of Uttarakhand who was expelled from the BJP’s primary membership for six years after he was initially suspended indefinitely.

“The expulsion will come if Sengar is convicted by the court for a serious offence like rape or murder or CBI find anything adverse against him in the present accident case. Till then, he has the chance to come to the party and ask for revocation of his suspension if the courts find nothing adverse against him,” a senior party leader in UP said.

UP deputy CM Dinesh Sharma became the senior-most state functionary to visit the rape victim in hospital in Lucknow on Tuesday and said the government stands with the victim and is on no way shielding the MLA, against whom the "topmost action" had been taken.

As per the KGMU Hospital in Lucknow, the victim’s condition remains “very critical” and she is on ventilator support.