Rebel Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) leader Shatrughan Sinha joined the Congress today, thus ending his decades-old association with the BJP after he was denied party ticket to contest Lok Sabha polls.
Key leaders of Congress party were conspicuous by their absence at Shatru’s much expected joining ceremony. The former actor joined the Congress in presence of KC Venugopal and Randeep Surjewala.
Shatrughan Sinha is currently the sitting Member of Parliament from the from Patna Sahib parliamentary constituency and will now contest against BJP’s nominee Ravi Shankar Prasad.
He slammed the saffron party stating that it has turned into a “one-man show and two-men army”. He hit out at BJP leadership, alleging there’s no place left for ‘dialogue’ in the party.
He described himself a great admirer of Nehru-Gandhi family.
“Congress played the biggest role in bringing India’s Independence. It was wholly and solely responsible for freeing India from the colonial rule,” he said at a press conference at the Congress headquarters.
He stated that former prime minister Indira Gandhi was very fond of him and he always used to get affection from her. “I have written in my autobiography that had she been alive, I would have been in the Congress party only and not in any other party,” he claimed.
He extolled the Gandhi family as “nation builders” and that the family has “contributed so much to the country.”
Shatrughan, known for singing paeans to his political masters, also heaped praise on Congress president Rahul Gandhi and called Gandhi a “dynamic, tried, tested and successful leader” and the “face and future of India.”
In his tweets, he has also been full of praise for Gandhi and Lalu Prasad referring to the jailed RJD chief as his ‘family friend’ even after the latter’s convictions in a series of corruption cases.
“I am sad that I had to quit the BJP on its foundation day,” he said slamming the ruling party for imposing 75 year-bar on contesting polls.
