Shatrughan Sinha Joins Congress, Hits Out at Modi-Shah Duo
Image Courtesy: IANS
New Delhi: After his decades-old association with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), actor-turned politician Shatrughan Sinha, 72, on Saturday joined the Congress. Significantly, he chose to quit the BJP on its foundation day.
"It's with a heavy heart and immense pain that I finally bid adieu to my old party, for reasons best known to all of us, on April 6, which also happens to be the Sansthapna Diwas (Foundation Day) of the BJP,” he tweeted earlier.
Sinha, who has been openly critical of BJP under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party president Amit Shah, took jibes at the duo, saying: "In the one-man show, two-man army, everything happens from Prime Minister's Office... the ministers can't work freely anyway," he said, adding “We have seen how democracy turned into autocracy.”
The former BJP leader also termed demonetisation as "probably the world's biggest scam", adding that "It was a mindless decision... Several people died... Modi ji's mother was in the queue and we were told it was normal.
Sinha is likely to contest as the Opposition alliance candidate from Bihar's Patna Sahib, his constituency of 10 years, where he will be pitted against BJP’s Ravi Shankar Prasad.
The actor, considered close to BJP old guards LK Advani, Jaswant Singh and Yashwant Sinha -- all of whom were sidelined by the present party leadership was quoted by NDTV as saying that: "Advaniji was sent to the Margdarshak Mandal which hasn't held even a single meeting so far. They did the same to Jaswant Singh, Yashwant Sinha... I was even told that I have been a critic and that I will not be given a cabinet post... but my image has been clean."
He said the "differences I have with some of the present people and policies of the party, leave me with no option but to part ways with it."
On joining the Congress, Sinha an IANS report quoted him as saying that he was hopeful that the Grand Old National Party which he was joining "will provide me with opportunities to serve our people, society, and nation in terms of unity, prosperity, progress, development, and glory. This is a party of great nation builders and luminaries like Mahatma Gandhi, (Jawaharlal) Nehru, (Vallabhbhai) Patel, and many others."
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