Sanjay Dutt's appearance with the BJP leaders had raised eyebrows given his family's long association with the Congress.
Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt has rejected rumours about him getting close to the ruling BJP after he was seen sharing the dais with their party leaders in Mumbai on Sunday.
"I was not there seeing it as a BJP platform but I was there for my brother Mohit Kamboj," Mr Dutt told news agency ANI.
After being released from the Yerwada Jail in Pune on the completion of his five year sentence for illegally possessing an AK-56 rifle in the 1993 Bombay blast case, for the first time Mr Dutt made a public appearance on Sunday at an event organised by the BJP's youth wing leader Manoj Kamboj to celebrate Maharashtra Day.
The 56-year-old's maiden appearance hobnobbing with BJP leaders had raised eyebrows given his family's long association with the Congress. Mr Dutt's father, actor Sunil Dutt was a Mumbai MP from the Congress party as was his sister Priya.
At the event in the western suburb of Goregaon, Mr Dutt, seen in a traditional Maharashtrian headgear, had also reportedly appealed to the audience to elect Mr Kamboj in the next assembly elections. Also present was Ashish Shelar, president of BJP's Mumbai unit who had tweeted photographs of the event on Sunday and seemed to express "surprise".
He however now says it was lack of judgement. "This was avoidable. I should have known he would be coming. It was lack of judgement," Mr Shelar explained on Tuesday after the uproar.
Ironically, the BJP when in the opposition had taken on the ruling Congress in Maharashtra for treating Mr Dutt with kids gloves by repeatedly granting him parole during his incarceration in prison.
Mr Dutt has flirted with politics earlier when in 2009, at the insistence of his "elder brother" Amar Singh he had joined the Samajwadi Party. However, he quit once Mr Singh was expelled by Mulayam Singh.