Sanjay Dutt made SP General Secretary

by Mayank99 | April 1, 2009 at 10:59 pm

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Bollywood actor and politician Sanjay Dutt has been appointed the General Secretary of Samajwadi Party.

The announcement of Sanjay Dutt being made party General Secretary was announced by senior Samajwadi Party leader Prof Ram Gopal.

"Sanjay Dutt will now campaign actively for Samajwadi Party," said Yadav after making the announcement.

Dutt thanked Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav for making him the General Secretary of the party.

The Bollywood actor, who has been convicted and sentenced to six years in jail under the Arms Act in the 1993 Mumbai bomb blast case, blamed the Congress for reportedly sidelining his father Sunil Dutt. He also claimed that Sunil Dutt was "very unhappy when Sanjay Nirupam was taken into the party".

"Nirupam has now been given ticket by Congress. Had my father known this he would have been very unhappy," said Dutt.

He also clarified that he campaigned for Congress leader Priya Dutt as she is his sister.

"At that time I was a bother and not a politician. I have to learn a lot in politics," he said.

Dutt was disallowed to contest elections by the Supreme Court on Tuesday after it refused to suspend his conviction in the 1993 Mumbai bomb blast case.

"We are not inclined to suspend his conviction," said a Bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan. "It is not a fit case to grant stay of conviction," said the Bench, which also comprised Justices P Sathasivam and RM Lodha.

The court said that the power of the court to suspend the conviction of a person to enable him to contest the elections has to be exercised rarely.

The court refused to stay Dutt's conviction, saying his case does not have parity with that of cricketer-turned-parliamentarian Navjot Singh Sidhu, who had resigned his seat after his conviction in a case of unintentional killing.

Dutt has been sentenced to six years in jail by a Mumbai anti-terror court hearing the 1993 serial bomb blasts in the city.

As per electoral laws, a person convicted for a criminal offence and sentenced to jail for more than two years is barred from running for elections.

The court said that Dutt had been convicted of "serious offence" under the Arms Act and was disqualified from contesting the elections under the Section 8 (3) of the Representation of People Act, which debars a person sentenced to two or more years of imprisonment, from standing for polls.