On Friday, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra welcomed what the Supreme Court had decided in the Unnao rape case, saying it exposed the failure of governance in Uttar Pradesh. Her comments followed a string of tweets in which she had criticised the BJP over its handling of Kuldeep Singh Sengar, the BJP legislator facing the main charges in the case.

What she said

“The decision by Supreme Court is a stamp on the failure and ‘Jungle Raj’ prevalent in Uttar Pradesh,” Priyanka Gandhi wrote on Twitter. She said the BJP had now admitted that it had been protecting a criminal, since he had been expelled from the party, and that the party had at least taken a step towards correcting its mistake.

Earlier tweets

Before Sengar’s expulsion, she had called the incident shocking and asked why the BJP had not acted against him. She questioned how far the CBI investigation had progressed, why the accused MLA was still in the party, and why security for the survivor and the witnesses had been lax.

In another post she asked, “What is the BJP waiting for?” and wondered whether the party no longer felt any moral duty towards citizens. She also shared a photograph of Sengar with Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, again asking why no action had been taken.

In a later tweet she listed the sequence of events: a woman who alleged rape by a BJP MLA; her father beaten and dying in custody; a key witness dying in mysterious circumstances last year; and now her aunt, also a witness, killed and her lawyer critically injured in a crash with a truck whose number plates had been blackened.

Sengar expelled

The Friday tweet was the latest in a series aimed at the BJP and the state government. The BJP expelled Sengar after considerable pressure and embarrassment over the case.

See also: Indian National Congress, Bharatiya Janata Party and Uttar Pradesh Vidhan Sabha members.

Originally published on 2 August 2019. Rewritten on 9 October 2026.

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