Actor-turned-politician Shatrughan Sinha is contesting from the industrial city of Asansol and wants to take his party’s slogan ‘Khela Hobe’ to the entire country. Popularly called ‘shotgun’ by his fans for his direct dialogues and speeches, Sinha also rejected the extraneous tags given by his rivals and said that he was no less a Bengali than any other Bengali. Sinha, who has been in the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha. Member for two terms, said, “Mamata Banerjee holds the future of the country. I will strengthen her hands in expanding ‘Khela Hobe’ across the country.” “Khela hobe” was the battle slogan given by Banerjee in the fiercely contested assembly elections in West Bengal last year, which was won by the TMC in a grand manner.
“I feel honored by Mamata Banerjee announcing my name as TMC candidate from Asansol in the Lok Sabha bypolls. “She is a tried, tested and successful politician who holds hope for the future of the country against the ‘divisive politics’ being run by the then government,” Sinha told PTI.
Asked whether he had quit the Congress in favor of the West Bengal chief minister, he said, “I will only say that I have joined Banerjee in the fight for communal harmony and welfare of the poor.” Served as a minister in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee, joined Congress and unsuccessfully contested from his native Patna Sahib Lok Sabha constituency in 2019. He was defeated by former Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad in the last parliamentary election. After the 2019 general elections, Congress did not give him much responsibility.
The actor turned politician was at a lower level. Now with the announcement of his name by Banerjee for the parliamentary by-election from Asansol, Sinha is again in the limelight. “I am no less a Bengali than any other Bengali. I am not an outsider. Bengali language Bengali culture has been my love. I have done many films in Bengali from Goutam Ghosh’s “Antarjali Jatra” to Shakti Samanta’s “Mustan” and the Bengali language I speak is not a dubbed language, he told PTI. “How can someone call me an ‘outsider’? Like my ‘janmabhoomi’ (place of birth) Bihar, Bengal has always been my weakness,” he argued.
“Besides, Asansol has a cosmopolitan population where, apart from my dear Bengali people, citizens of Bihar, Jharkhand and elsewhere are residing in large numbers. If I am called an ‘outsider’ in Asansol, would you say the same for the Prime Minister contesting from Varanasi? Sinha’s remarks come amid protests by the opposition BJP and thinking that the TMC, which won the assembly elections. The electoral issue of Bangaliana (Bengali cultural values) has nominated an “outsider” from the state’s Lok Sabha seat.
“I am a pan-India personality in terms of popularity, in terms of work. From Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh to Haryana and Punjab, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Bengal, people from all over the country have blessed me. The “insider-outsider” debate in West Bengal gained strength ahead of the state elections, when the ruling TMC dubbed the BJP an “outsider’s party”.
When asked why he suddenly quit the Congress, Sinha declined to comment on it. “I don’t want to comment on it right now,” he said. Because the focus is now on winning the Asansol seat.” On his choice of TMC, he said, “One should go in a new and better direction to do something good for the country.” Sinha said that despite being in a different party, Banerjee He always had good relations with him.
“Despite being a BJP MP, I had attended his opposition rally at Brigade Maidan (Maidan) in Kolkata in 2019. I have always appreciated his dynamic leadership and it will be a privilege to work in the party under his leadership. “Former Union minister Yashwant Sinha had joined Banerjee’s party ahead of the Bengal elections and now Shatrughan Sinha will join her as part of TMC’s efforts to challenge the BJP in the 2024 general elections,” Sinha said.
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