Lucknow: Following the BJP rescinding its ticket to wife of Kuldeep Sengar, the former Unnao MLA convicted of rape, the couple’s daughter has questioned the move as the first phase of the Uttar Pradesh panchayat polls got underway.
In a video posted to Twitter, Aishwarya criticised the BJP for cancelling her mother, Sangeeta Sengar’s ticket. Sangeeta was set to contest from ward no. 22 of Fatehpur Chaurasi area in Unnao, where polling will take place on 26 April.
In a tweet that accompanied the video, Aishwarya wrote: “Stop reducing women’s identity to their relationship to men,” along with the hashtag #WomenInPolitics.
Stop reducing women’s identity to their relationship to men. #WomenInPolitics #PanchayatElections2021 #SpeakUp pic.twitter.com/n7LPcyTPgf
— Aishwarya Sengar (@SengarAishwarya) April 15, 2021
“For the last three years, my family has been witnessing injustice. My mother Sangeeta Sengar has been a member of the Unnao zila panchayat for the past 15 years and has been part of active politics. She has been fulfilling her duties with sincerity and honesty. Probably that is why she was also chosen as zila panchayat adhyaksh (leader). Today, the qualifications of a woman politician, her experience, her hard work, everything is being ignored,” Aishwarya says in the video, speaking in Hindi.
“We have provided reservations to women in this country, but when she steps forward, why does it become important who her husband or father is? Does being a daughter, sister, or wife of anyone make her ineligible? Doesn’t she have an identity of her own? I just want to ask what is the mistake of my mother? How does she become tainted? Don’t my mother and I have any right to live with dignity? I am speaking up today as my conscience will die if I keep silent again this time,” she adds.
Aishwarya is a philosophy graduate from Miranda House college and is pursuing law from Delhi University.
Speaking to ThePrint, a family member said: “What’s the fault of Sangeeta ji … just that she is [the] wife of Kuldeep Sengar? … Then where are women rights. Why we all are facing criticism every time, without doing anything?”
Sangeeta is a sitting zila panchayat president from Unnao district.
Panchayat polls are being held in in four phases between 15 and 29 April, with the counting of votes scheduled for 2 May.
Kuldeep Sengar was sentenced to life in a prison by a Delhi court on 20 December 2019 for raping a 17-year-old girl in Unnao district. After his conviction, Sengar’s membership as an MLA was cancelled.
(Edited by Manasa Mohan)
Also read: Village head to powerful MLA, the rise of Kuldeep Sengar until 2017 Unnao rape case