JOIN USDefiant MP Shatrughan Sinha may enjoy a free run with his criticism of senior BJP leaders as the party high command is wary of taking punitive action before the Bihar polls.
But, post elections, a peeved BJP top brass is contemplating disciplinary action against the Bollywood actor-turned politician for openly questioning the party's strategy in Bihar and hobnobbing with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar amidst talk of fielding his wife as a JD(U) candidate.
A very senior partyman said BJP chief Amit Shah would summon Sinha, who is popularly known as Bihari Babu, for some hard talk. The senior did not rule out the actor being shown the party door as well due to his unrelenting pinpricks ever since Narendra Modi was elevated as party’s PM candidate in the run up to the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
After PM Modi attended Sinha’s son’s wedding, party leaders thought the two would bury the hatchet.
In his latest comment that is not music to BJP ears, Sinha said that LJP chief and union minister Ram Vilas Paswan was most suited to lead Bihar despite knowing the fact that the NDA is still to decide on the face that would lead the coalition in the assembly polls expected to take place sometime during October-November.
A senior party leader said NDA will fight polls on BJP’s symbol “kamal (lotus)” and exhibited confidence about the coalition doing well in the polls. Given the high stakes in the elections, where the NDA is pitted in a direct contest against alliance of JDU-RJD-Congress, the party has already completed first rounds of campaigning in about 45,000 villages.
The Parivartan Rath which first focused on Nitish government’s maladministration since it parted ways with the BJP on the elevation of Modi issue, will resume the second round of campaigning in a few days time. This time, the focus will be the NDA’s vision for Bihar which will include Rs 1.25 lakh crore development package cleared by PM.
BJP chief Amit Shah is also going to call a meeting of the NDA allies – LJP, RLSP – soon to finalise seat sharing formula. Both the partners have given an ultimatum for a meeting in a week’s time since the NDA is already lagging behind on the seats each of the parties would be contesting from.