BJP should also ask me if I really want a party ticket: Shatrughan Sinha hits out at BJP

Hitting out at his critics within the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Patna MP Shatrughan Sinha said on Sunday that he hasn’t been contacted by the party leadership yet on his future within the BJP. The comments by actor-turned-MP come amid speculations that he may be denied a re-election bid in 2019 owing to his vocal criticism of demonetisation, the GST rollout and the functioning style of BJP President Amit Shah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“I have been hearing a lot that I won’t be offered a BJP ticket (from Patna Sahib) this time around. But did anyone ask if I really want a BJP ticket for the Lok Sabha elections,” Sinha said at an event at a Patna school, as per reports in Hindi dailies.

In a strong message apparently aimed at the Shah-Modi duo, he indicated that it was his call as to what role he would play within the BJP, rather than the party’s.

The 73-year old MP from Patna Sahib, fondly known as “Bihari Babu,” has been pitching for a change in leadership style of the BJP. “There is still some time and some hope left if party veterans like LK Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi and Arun Shourie are brought at the front,” news agency PTI had quoted him as saying last month.

“Many people have left, some others are preparing to leave and others driving tough negotiations...all said and done the party’s popularity and that of one leader and two-men Army have taken a beating,” he had said then.

The BJP leader has maintained that he was just lending a voice to the concerns of the public on demonetisation and the GST, and has no personal agenda in critiquing these decisions.

While a section of the BJP, seen as loyal to Shah-Modi duo, have been reportedly clamouring for his side-lines, Sinha, at the same time, has been viewed as cosying up to the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD). There have been strong suggestions that he may contest on a RJD ticket in Patna, if denied an opportunity by the BJP.

Besides calling Tejashwi Yadav as “Bihar’s face” and its “future”, Sinha had raised hackles within the BJP by sharing stage with prominent party dissenters such as Arun Shourie and Yashwant Sinha.