Rinku Singh shunted out of poll body's voter campaign after engagement to Samajwadi Party's Priya Saroj

Lucknow: Indian cricketer Rinku Singh, who got engaged to Samajwadi Party Lok Sabha member Priya Saroj a few days back, was removed by the Election Commission (EC) from SVEEP (Systematic Voters Education and Electoral Participation) campaign.

According to the sources here on Friday, The EC has directed the officials to remove the pictures of Rinku Singh from the publicity materials like posters, videos and also websites.

Singh was included in the campaign by the EC as a youth icon.

Sources said that the EC had taken this step to maintain impartiality in the awareness campaign.

The officials said that Singh is now associated with a political person and as part of the EC policy, any person as such is kept out of the voters awareness campaign.

Singh and Samajwadi Party Lok Sabha member Priya Saroj got engaged in the presence of several cricketers, politicians and others in June.

Born on November 23, 1998, Priya was elected to the Lok Sabha from Machhlishahr constituency in the 2024 parliamentary elections. She is the youngest MP from Uttar Pradesh. Her father Toofani Saroj had also been an MP from the same seat.

Rinku Singh was retained by KKR for Rs 13 crore in the recently concluded IPL. He shot into limelight when he hit five sixes in an over for Gujarat Titans in 2023.