JOIN USActor-politician Shatrughan Sinha Wednesday said he was deeply saddened by the sudden demise of "dear family friend" Sushma Swaraj with whom he had a long association.
Sinha, who quit BJP to join Congress on the eve of 2019 general elections, fondly remembered his relationship with Swaraj, former external affairs minister, who passed away Tuesday night in Delhi.
"My association with her started when I was not in BJP. When I became a member of the BJP, the bond deepened," he told PTI.
"She was a dear family friend for me," Sinha said expressing shock at her untimely death. He described the veteran leader as a "lady of strength who displayed a rare quality of professionalism with a human touch."
Sinha, who unsuccessfully contested on a Congress candidate from his native Patna Sahib seat in Bihar in the recently concluded Parliamentary poll, revealed that he had spoken to Swaraj about his plans to quit the saffron party.
Swaraj had told him that even if someone pulls her by her hair she will not leave BJP. Sinha was a cabinet colleague of Swaraj in the NDA government of Atal Bihari Vajpayee.