Demanding stern action against Samajwadi Party national president Mulayam Singh Yadav for his anti-women statement, the State unit of the BJP said that he should be debarred from contesting lok Sabha elections.
“The statement of the SP president shows his criminal mindset and the Election Commission should take cognisance of this statement and he should not be allowed to contest lok Sabha elections,’’ State president BJP laxmi Kant Bajpai said in a statement issued here on Friday.
Yadav is contesting election from Mainpuri and Azamgarh.
Bajpai said the statement has proved the growing frustration in the party over imminent defeat.
“There are at least two SP legislators — including former Minister Manoj Paras — who has been charged with rape. Should police treat it as their innocent acts or mistakes and allow them to go freelyIJ Not only that the State Government itself has admitted that during the first year of its tenure rape incidents in the State has gone up by 49 per cent,’’ he said.
Bajpai appeals to the people, particularly the women, to come forward and oppose the statement of the SP leader. They should show their resentment by defeating Samajwadi Party in the battle of ballots.
While addressing a rally, Yadav demanded abolition of capital punishment for the rape convicts and said sometimes youth commit mistakes.
“Yadav’s statement comes after the controversial speeches of Azam Khan, who has been served notice by the EC over his communal comment on Kargil war,’’ he said. “It seems there is a plan to rake up controversy one after the other to communalise the atmosphere in view of election,” he said.
When he was asked about the possibility of Mukhtar Ansari supporting Arvind Kejriwal in Varanasi against Narendra Modi he said that the AAP leader should clarify whether he will take the support of a dreaded criminal in his elections. “If he takes the support then his claim of a clean party stands maligned,” he said.