After being a persistent critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi for years, actor-turned-politician Shatrughan Sinha seems to be parting ways with the BJP. Though rumours had been doing the rounds of political circles of his joining the Congress for more than a month, nothing concrete had taken place.
Last week, the BJP denied ticket to Sinha from Patna Sahib and decided to field Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad from the seat. Following this snub, though everyone expected Sinha to leave the BJP, it looked as if he was waiting to be thrown out.
According to a report by Times of India, Sinha is expected to join the Congress by the end of the week. The report quoted Bihar Congress campaign committee chairman and Rajya Sabha member Akhilesh Prasad Singh as saying, “He (Shatrughan) will join (Congress) either on March 28 or 29 in New Delhi."
It feels as if Sinha is trying to make it easier for the BJP to kick him out as on Sunday he tweeted saying "right time for #CongressYuktBharat" while criticising BJP's move to align with parties which practiced dynastic politics.
party in MP, Rajasthan, Maharashtra...& in most of your alliances too.
— Shatrughan Sinha (@ShatruganSinha) March 24, 2019
By the way Sir, what happened to your promise of #CongressMuktBharat?
Also gone with the wind like ‘Smart Cities’ & other promises?!
Don’t worry Sir, it's now right time for #CongressYuktBharat Jai Hind!
On Tuesday, Sinha made his interest in joining Congress clearer by tweeting in support of Congress chief Rahul Gandhi's minimum income guarantee.
It's a masterstroke by the 'master of situation', @RahulGandhi - declaring #MinimumIncomeGuarantee scheme. It has rattled our people so much that some of our prominent people had to rush for a press conference, calling the whole declaration/ announcement "chhal kapat".
— Shatrughan Sinha (@ShatruganSinha) March 26, 2019
If Shatrughan Sinha does join the Congress, it will have to be seen whether he will be allotted a seat or not to fight in the coming Lok Sabha polls.
A popular movie actor, whose stint in Bollywood started in the 1960s, Shatrughan became famous for essaying villain roles before being cast as a hero. Shatrughan was one of the first people from the movie industry to join the BJP and served as a minister in the government of Atal Behari Vajpayee.
Shatrughan joined the BJP soon after it was formed in 1980. He fought his first electoral battle in a byelection for the New Delhi Lok Sabha seat in 1992. Shatrughan was defeated by a fellow movie star, Rajesh Khanna, who was contesting on a Congress ticket.
Shatrughan then served as a member of the Rajya Sabha and went on to serve separate stints as minister of health and shipping in the Vajpayee government from 2002 to 2004. Shatrughan won his first Lok Sabha election in 2009, winning the Patna Sahib constituency in Bihar. He went on to win the constituency again in 2014.
While an early supporter of Narendra Modi, Shatrughan became a bitter critic of Modi's style of governance as prime minister. He was severely critical of moves such as demonetisation, the Rafale deal and Modi's attacks on opposition figures. Over the past year, Shatrughan played a visible role in the activities of the Rashtra Manch, fronted by Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie, who were former BJP leaders. In January, Shatrughan attended the 'United India' rally in Kolkata of parties opposed to the BJP.
