BAREILY: A week before
Budaun
goes to polls on May 7, photographs of
Aditya Yadav
, son of Samajwadi Party veteran Shivpal Yadav and the party’s candidate from the seat, have emerged on social media showing him surrounded by women in a swimming pool.
While not denying it is him in the pictures, Aditya held a press conference on Wednesday to say that the images were from his college days in 2012.
“Some individuals in them are my friends and sisters,” he said and expressed concerns regarding the “possibility of AI-generated manipulated obscene videos “of his being released next.
Aditya’s images were shared by a man called Mahendra Vikram, who claimed to be the BJP’s “zonal social media convenor”. In a social media post, Vikram said, “People of Budaun will identify him (Aditya) soon…These photos are real and are from 2012.”
During the press conference, Aditya raised concerns about the violation of his privacy and questioned the BJP’s “ethics in using such tactics for political gain”. He also alleged that the BJP’s IT cell and party workers were involved in spreading these images through various social media platforms.
In response, BJP candidate Durgvijay Singh Shakya commented, “We haven’t seen his photos yet, but we saw his interview. Regarding his personal life, I would just like to say that his uncle (Mulayam Singh Yadav) also said ‘boys are boys and they make mistakes’. I have nothing more to say… he (Aditya) knows quite well what is the truth.”
In Budaun, there is a triangular fight this time — between BJP’s Shakya, BSP’s Muslim Khan, and
SP
’s Aditya. BJP’s Sanghmitra Maurya had won the seat in 2019 by a margin of 18,000 votes.
Aditya clarified that the images were from his college days in 2012. ‘Some individuals in them are my friends and sisters,’ he added
