Naresh Agrawal faces flak from all sides for his statement against Jaya Bachchan

Lucknow: Naresh Agrawal, who has very recently dumped Samajwadi Party and joined Bharatiya Janta Party for losing party’s Rajya Sabha ticket to veteran actor Jaya Bachchan is facing flak for his “nachne gaane vali” statement. Hours after quitting SP, Agrawal while showing his resentment towards party’s decision of giving away the Rajya Sabha nominee ticket to Jaya Bachchan, the senior leader said “my level has been reduced to the level of naachne gaane vaali(someone who dances and sings)” Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday slammed their former member Naresh Agarwal for his comment and demanded an apology from him. In a statement, Mayawati said that other than being in poor taste, the statement also reflected Agarwal's anti-women mindset. The four-time Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister also said that the Bharatiya Janata Party should clarify its stand on the statement of its new leader and take corrective measures. Later, BJP distanced itself from Agrawal’s statement saying “Agrawal is welcome to the party but he must not make such statements against women”.

Shri Naresh Agarwal has joined Bhartiya Janata Party. He is welcome. However, his comments regarding Jaya Bachhan ji are improper and unacceptable.

— Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) March 12, 2018

Akhilesh Yadav, in whose party Agarwal was before switching sides, termed his statement against Jaya Bachchan unfortunate and also called for action against him from leadership of his new party. A known party hopper, Agarwal who started his political journey with the Congress has been part of successive BJP governments in UP in the 1990s and later switched to the BSP, which sent him to the upper house of the Parliament. He had later ditched Mayawati for the Samajwadi Party, served a full term as its Rajya Sabha member, before switching over to the BJP.