Shatrughan reacts to Shah's proposed Patna roadshow

Actor-turned-politician Shatrughan Sinha, who quit BJP and joined the Congress, on Thursday lashed out at the saffron party over reports in a section of the media that party president Amit Shahs proposed roadshow here later this week would show him his aukaat (worth).

Shah is scheduled to hold a roadshow here on Saturday evening. It is slated to commence from Kadam Kuan locality, where Sinhas ancestral house is situated and criss-cross several narrow streets in densely populated localities before concluding near the historic Gandhi Maidan, according to sources in the BJP.

I have heard that Shah is coming to Patna. He is welcome as every guest is. He would be served tea and also pakodas which he and his ilk seem to be very fond of, Sinha, also called 'Shotgun', said in an obvious dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The prime minister while replying to complaints of job crisis, had said that selling fritters should also be seen as employment.

But I have learnt that some people say he is coming here to show me my aukaat (worth). This is going to backfire. Seems the BJP has not learnt its lessons from the assembly polls of 2015 when the DNA remark (by the prime minister) had cost the NDA dearly, he told PTI here.

Modi, while attacking Nitish Kumar at a rally in Muzaffarpur in July 2015 ahead of the Bihar assembly polls had said that it seemed that there was some problem with Nitish Kumar's DNA, referring to the frequent change of political allegiance of Nitish Kumar. The BJP had lost the election and Kumar had gone on to form the government along with allies RJD and the Congress.

They (BJP) are once again insulting a dharti putra (son of the soil). The people of Bihar in general and Patna, in particular, have been hurt and they will give a befitting reply on the day of polling, said Sinha, who quit the BJP last month and is now seeking to retain Patna Sahib on a Congress ticket.

When senior BJP leader and Bihar minister Nand Kishore Yadav had announced Shah's programme at a press conference here Wednesday, questions were raised as to whether the starting point has been decided to tease Sinha since there are many wider streets which could have been chosen.

Yadav, who represents one of the assembly segments falling under Patna Sahib, had dismissed the questions saying Who cares about the Congress candidate without mentioning Sinha by name.

Reports have surfaced in a section of the media here quoting BJP sources that the route has been deliberately chosen to show Sinha, who had been critical of the leadership of Modi and Shah even while within the BJP, his aukaat (worth).