New Delhi: Bollywood actor-turned rebel BJP MP Shatrughan Sinha (72) is expected to announce his candidature to seek re-election from Patna Sahib as a joint candidate of the Congress and the RJD on Friday.
The Congress has been pressing him to join it since he started speaking publicly against Modi and his policies and the party leaders are hopeful he will finally join the party in Patna on Friday when the Opposition’s alliance is also to be declared formally that was earlier planned to be unveiled on March 17.
Kirti Azad, another BJP rebel MP who was put under suspension on falling out with Union Minister Arun Jaitley, has already joined the Congress and he has been persuading the Shotgun also to shift the loyality to the Congress.
The BJP has already announced to field Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, a Rajya Sabha member, from Patna Sahib to take on Sinha. Both come from the Kayastha community and Prasad claims to have better clout in the community than Sinha.
Sinha is clearly looking for a space in the Opposition since he joined two anti-BJP rallies, including the one by West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee in Kolkata in January. His caustic tweets against Modi and repeated attacks on the Rafale deal made Congress leaders take on Modi on the Varanasi LS seat, though he has gone on record Patna Sahib has elected him in 2009 and 2014 and he would like to seek re-election from there only.
