Dutt points accusing finger at Cong

Sanjay Dutt, who was disallowed by the Supreme Court to contest upcoming Lok Sabha elections, on Tuesday suggested that Congress was behind the effort to scuttle his intentions and said he would campaign for Samajwadi Party throughout the country.

Asked whether his wife Manyata would be contesting in his place from Lucknow, he said SP would take a decision on this. 

"I don't want to accuse anybody. But the government did oppose (his plea in the Supreme Court for allowing him to contest). Now, you think whatever you want to," Dutt told a press conference he addressed along with SP general secretary Amar Singh.

Singh said Dutt's "political opponents" were responsible for denying the actor a chance to contest and "they would pay a heavy price for it."

To a question, Dutt said he would stay back in Lucknow from where he was to be fielded and campaign there for SP as also across the country.

"I will do whatever the party wants," he said. 

Amar Singh claimed Dutt had been threatened by a person at the behest of a Union Cabinet minister against joining SP. "He was warned that if he joins SP, he will go to jail," he claimed.

At the same time, he said SP  has "no quarrel" with Congress president Sonia Gandhi whom he "respects" and that he wanted Manmohan Singh to be the prime minister.    Amar Singh kept up the suspense on who would be SP's candidate in place of Dutt, saying it will be decided by the party's Parliamentary Board.

The decision will be taken in consultation with senior leaders like Janeshwar Mishra and Ram Gopal Yadav. Asked whether Jaya Bachchan would be the candidate in Lucknow, the SP leader refused to give a clear-cut reply, saying she was a senior leader and a parliamentarian. 

Describing Dutt as a "hanuman" of SP, chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and himself, Amar Singh issued a veiled threat to the opponents by citing that when the monkey God's tail burnt the kingdom of Ravana was set on fire.