Patna: Barely days into his new avatar as a Congressman, Shatrughan Sinha is already facing protests from his party colleagues. The reason: He is shooting from the hip once too often and showing nostalgia for his former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) colleagues.
His wife’s association with the Samajwadi Party (SP) hasn’t helped matters as he has ended up declaring party chief Akhilesh Yadav and his 2019 ally, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) president Mayawati, “PM material”, instead of Rahul Gandhi — no less than sacrilege in the Congress.
The party was also left more than a little red-faced recently when, if unconsciously, Sinha seemed to attack the Congress in a speech.
Speaking in Madhya Pradesh Friday, Sinha declared Pakistan founder Mohammad Ali Jinnah a part of the Congress family.
In Patna Saturday, Shotgun, as he is known to fans, clarified that it was a slip of the tongue. “I had wanted to name (freedom fighter) Maulana Abul Kalam Azad,” he said.
But the damage was already done. BJP leaders who had so far resisted attacking him issued statements that Sinha had showed the “true colour of Congress”, said a senior party leader.
In other speeches, he has evoked senior leaders who are believed to have been given a raw deal by the BJP of Narendra Modi and Amit Shah.
Speaking at the Sadaquat Ashram, the Bihar Congress headquarters, on 22 April, he said, “The BJP’s tallest leaders, like L.K. Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi and Yashwant Sinha, have been sidelined. People are searching for these leaders.”
This was Sinha’s first visit to the state party headquarters. He is the Congress candidate for Patna Sahib, the seat he won for the BJP in 2009 and 2014.
A senior Congress leader who was present for the address told ThePrint that the speech “had more mention of BJP leaders than those of the Congress”.
“Praising BJP leaders at the Congress headquarters, even the likes of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, was unheard of,” said the Congress leader, even though he conceded that the Bollywood star had attacked the BJP leadership on the issue while still in the party.
“It is understandable. He has had old ties with the BJP and their leaders. My only request to him is that, before speaking, he should think, and not utter words that hurt the sentiments of anyone,” senior Congress leader Sadanand Singh told ThePrint.
Then, his description of Akhilesh and Mayawati as “PM material” in Lucknow, where his wife is the candidate this Lok Sabha election, further alienated the Congress cadres.
His justification, that being prime minister is “all about numbers”, cut no ice with his new party colleagues. The fact that he had campaigned for his wife in a constituency where a Congress candidate is also in the fray had caused much heartburn as well.
The big switch
Sinha, a two-term Lok Sabha member from Bihar’s Patna Sahib, was with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for 27 years before he switched to the Congress earlier this month.
Sinha’s formal entry into the BJP came in 1992, when he contested from New Delhi against fellow mega star Rajesh Khanna, who was representing the Congress.
He lost, but became a major campaigner for the BJP, going on to secure two stints in the Rajya Sabha and as many in the Lok Sabha from Patna Sahib. He also served as Union minister in the Vajpayee government.
His rough patch in the BJP started in 2014, when the party wanted to shift him to New Delhi and Shotgun stuck to Patna Sahib.
Sinha, who became a fierce critic of the party over the past five years, was finally dropped by the BJP as a candidate in the current Lok Sabha polls and replaced by Union minister Ravishankar Prasad.
He consequently switched loyalties to the Congress.
‘Thrust on Congress by RJD’
Thanks to his long association with the BJP, Congress leaders and workers are finding it difficult to warm up to Sinha.
When it was announced that he would be fielded as the Congress candidate from BJP citadel Patna Sahib, the yesteryear star declared that he had come with the “approval of Lalu”, a reference to Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief and former chief minister Lalu Prasad.
“It was as if he was thanking Lalu and not Rahul Gandhi for the ticket,” said a senior Congress leader, adding that party workers “resented the fact that Shatrughan was thrust upon them by the RJD”.
“Out of the nine seats given to us [out of Bihar’s 40] in the grand alliance, the seats of Patna Sahib and Katihar’s Tariq Anwar [who quit the Nationalist Congress Party last year to join the Congress] were given to us because the sitting MPs crossed over,” the senior Congress leader added. “The party actually got just seven seats.”
The protest
When Singh made his first visit to Sadaquat Ashram, a group of Congress workers staged a protest against his Lucknow statement, demanding his replacement as the party’s Patna Sahib candidate.
“If he finds Akhilesh Yadav to be ‘PM material’, then he should contest as the Samajwadi Party candidate from Patna Sahib,” said Congress worker.
They also pointed out that Sinha never met the public after he won the Lok Sabha polls in 2009 and 2014 and was unpopular among the electorate.
The workers were evicted from Sadaquat Ashram but they continued their protest outside the gate. However, Congress leaders say the protest may have had nothing to do with Sinha at all.
Talking to ThePrint, Bihar Congress vice-president Samir Singh said the protest was “stage-managed by the BJP to embarrass our Patna Sahib candidate”.
Congress sources also indicated that the protesting Congress workers were actually supporters of former Kerala governor Nikhil Singh, who was denied a Lok Sabha ticket by the Grand Alliance from Aurangabad.
‘No personal slights’
While Ravi Shankar Prasad has already filed his nomination papers and has begun campaigning, Sinha is likely to file his nomination papers Monday.
The two have vowed not to make any personal attacks against each other.
Since it was carved into a separate constituency following delimitation in 2008, Patna Sahib has become a citadel for the BJP. Even in the 2015 assembly elections, when Lalu and Janata Dal (United) chief Nitish Kumar, now a BJP ally, contested together, the BJP managed to win five of the six assembly segments.
“The BJP has a well-entrenched network of workers while Shatrughan will have to rely on the vote bank and workers of the RJD,” said a senior Congress leader.
“The Congress in Patna is a minor player. But the Bollywood actor’s statements have left Congress workers less than enthusiastic,” the leader added.
Also read: ‘Khamosh’ will be battle code for Shatrughan Sinha, Ravi Shankar Prasad in Patna Sahib clash
Jaitley was right in accusing Congress of playing juvenile politics in matter of having Ms Priyanka Vadra contest from Varanasi. The same juvenile politics is evident in selecting Shatrughan Sinha as its candidate for the Patna Sahib seat. This man has passed his “sell by” date and in 2014 had won only the strength of the party and Sri Modi. No wonder, Congress is struggling with him.