Left out of BJP's Ambedkar Jayanti programme, upset Shatrughan Sinha slams state leaders

Patna: Actor-turned-BJP MP Shatrughan Sinha said he had not received any invitation to the party’s mega show on Tuesday on the occasion of Ambedkar anniversary in which it would blow the bugle for the Bihar Assembly elections.

“Neither party President Amit Shah nor the BJP state leadership invited me to the function,” Sinha, a second-term Lok Sabha member from Patna Saheb, told PTI. “My name or photograph does not figure in any of the banners, hoardings and posters despite being a local MP,” he said over the phone from his Mumbai residence.

Sinha said since he had no invitation he chose to stay away from it and see a doctor instead. He was in Patna and returned on Sunday night.

Shah, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, union ministers from Bihar including Ravishankar Prasad, Radhamohan Singh,Rajiv Pratap Rudy and Giriraj Singh, besides state leaders like Sushil Kumar Modi and Nand Kishore Yadav participated in the programme.

Sinha said he had been a committed member of the party,which he joined at the height of his Bollywood career and would “never even dream of harming it.” He claimed many a leaders in the state “felt threatened” by his personality and that was why they were trying to keep him away from programme, “so that they do not look dwarved due to my presence.” He, however, did not identify any leader.

Asked whether the party felt it would win the Bihar Assembly polls without him, Sinha, who has been star campaigner of the party for long, said “I wish them good luck.”

Sushil Kumar Modi when asked about the absence of Sinha’s name from banners and posters put up by BJP in connection with the programme, said these were put up by individuals and not by the party.

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar used the opportunity to take a swipe at BJP.“How come a party, which cannot take care of its own popular leader take care of the masses,” Kumar told reporters at Ambedkar’s 125th birth anniversary programme at JD(U) office in Patna.

PTI