The Bharatiya Janata Party has clarified that Shatrughan Sinha’s praise of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the Patna Metro Rail project does not guarantee him a ticket to contest elections on a party ticket. Thanking Sinha for his praise of PM Modi, the Bihar unit of BJP on Wednesday clearly stated that this U-turn by Sinha will not set things right for the alienated MP in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls this year.
Shatrughan Sinha, who has often been critical of PM Modi’s leadership and BJP chief Amit Shah, had lavished praise in Barauni on the Prime Minister as well as Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar after they laid the foundation stone for Patna Metro at a Barauni event. The event also saw the launch of projects worth over Rs. 30,000 crore.
Adding that the party is “grateful to Sinha for saying something which is true”, Bihar BJP president Nityanand Rai made it clear that making a “U-Turn is no guarantee for being considered for an election ticket.”
Rai was responding to questions posed by reporters on whether the commendation by the disgruntled Patna Sahib MP showed a U-turn on his part. Sinha has been routinely making public appearances at rallies and programmes where he severely criticised the Prime Minister. Most recently, he was seen at West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s rally in Kolkata in January, where a host of leaders in the opposition also joined her. His party had called the rebel BJP leader an ‘opportunist’. Just last week, Sinha took p[art in the opposition rally on Rafale and had said that the prime minister should speak the truth on the Indo-French agreement on the deal as he was accountable to the countyry.
Sinha had reportedly asked the crowd, “Why cannot he reply to the nation, will his 56-inch chest squeeze to six-inch?”
said that the BJP as a party believes in taking 130 crore Indians along. Anybody who expresses his trust in the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is treated with love. But remaining in the party, making a U-turn, is no guarantee for being considered for a ticket.
There have been postulations by political commentators that the rebel BJP leader might defend his Patna sahib seat through another party’s ticket. When questioned about the possibility, Sinha had said, “Location will be the same, situation might change.”
