Derogatory tweets may cost Kamaal Khan his candidature

Actor Kamaal R Khan's "derogatory" tweets against women could cost him his candidature from the Samajwadi Party (SP). Khan (45), who is the SP nominee from the North-West constituency, is accused of continuously tweeting derogatory remarks against women.

The state unit of the party has reportedly escalated the matter to the national leadership, seeking dismissal of Khan's candidature. A copy of Khan's 1,129 tweets has been sent to party president Mulayam Singh Yadav who will take a call by Thursday. Though the controversial tweets were few months old, the party was being pulled up by the youngsters and women in social media since past few days for nominating Khan as their candidate. As the controversy erupted, Khan reportedly told the party leaders that the posts were made from the parody account.

Interestingly, Khan has already filed his nomination with the election commission on Tuesday amidst the controversy albeit without informing the party leaders. The HSC passed actor has shown his assets worth Rs3.4 crore.

The party now claims that Khan's candidature was announced in haste without verifying his background.

Farhan Azmi, the president of the youth wing of the state unit of the party confirmed the development, "Khan's name was announced in hurry. We couldn't check his credentials before announcing his name. Now, we have recommended dismissal of his candidature as we can't tolerate anyone in the party who has no respect for women."

Azmi also said that the party has confirmed from the twitter officials that the account was not fake. He also denied having knowledge that Khan has filed the nomination.