Priya sought out help for her campaign: Amar Singh

"Why treat us like an untouchable now," said Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh after Congress MP Priya Dutt said that the Dutts had always supported the Congress.

Stung by Priya Dutt's objection to her brother Sanjay contesting elections on its ticket, the Samajwadi Party on Wednesday hit back claiming that the Congress MP who was now treating it as an "untouchable" had sought the party's help when she was fighting the Mumbai by-election.

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"Why treat us like an untouchable now... In the presence of Sanjay Dutt, she (Priya Dutt) had sought our help during her election," SP general secretary Amar Singh told reporters in New Delhi.

Singh reminded her that Congress was in power after the Left parties withdrew support and managed to sail through the Indo-US civil nuclear deal with the help of SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav.

Priya Dutt had contested the Lok Sabha by-election from Mumbai after the seat fell vacant following the demise of her father Sunil Dutt.

Amar Singh claimed that Sanjay had campaigned for SP even when their father Sunil Dutt was a member of the Union Cabinet.

"When the late Sunil Dutt was alive, Sanjay had campaigned for Jaya Prada when she had contested from Rampur (in Uttar Pradesh). "Dad (Sunil Dutt) should have then asked Sanjay not to campaign," Singh said.

Singh claimed when Congress had asked Sunil Dutt to campaign against Jaya Prada, he had refused. "He had said he would not campaign against people from the film industry be it Jaya Prada, Shatrughan Sinha, Rajesh Khanna or Hema Malini."

According to the SP general secretary, it was Sunil Dutt only who had introduced him to Sanjay.