UP: BJP MLA 'forces' schoolboys to become party members

Apparently under pressure to fulfil the target, a BJP lawmaker allegedly 'forced'' scores of minor students to become members of the saffron party in Uttar Pradesh's Chandauli district, about 300 kilometres from here.

According to the reports, BJP legislator Sushil Singh, who was considered to be a 'muscleman' in the area, barged into a high school in Sayyadraja area in the district a few days back while the classes were going on there and got the students of 10th and 12th standards to fill the BJP membership forms.

''Singh not only enrolled scores of minors as party members but also forced them to accept the saffron angavastram carrying BJP election symbol,'' said a teacher of the school on condition of anonymity as he feared for his safety.

The teacher said that none in the school had the courage to prevent the lawmaker, who was a relative of mafia don Brijesh Singh, from doing so.

The MLA also got his pictures with the students, many of whom appeared to be aged between 14-15 years, clicked inside the premises.

The matter came to light when the pictures went viral on social networking sites. An embarrassed BJP leadership did not offer any comment on the issue saying that it had no knowledge of the same.

''We have no information about making schoolboys members of the party,'' remarked a senior UP BJP leader here while speaking to DH.

BJP had launched its nationwide membership drive on July Six. Prime minister Narendra Modi had launched the drive in his Lok Sabha constituency of Varanasi.