Demonstration staged outside Bihar Cong HQ denouncing Shotgun; Sinha says ‘BJP hand’

Patna, April 22

A demonstration was staged here Monday outside the state Congress headquarters by a group who carried placards dubbing actor-politician Shatrughan Sinha as a ‘dalaal’ (broker) of Lalu Prasad’s RJD and raised slogans demanding cancellation of his candidature from the Patna Sahib Lok Sabha constituency.

BPCC spokesman HK Verma, however, asserted that the demonstrators were "not in any way associated with the party" and suspected that they were sent to the Sadaqat Ashram by rivals at a time when Sinha was not inside the premises.

Sinha trashed the incident as meant for publicity by a handful of people who might have been sent by the BJP.

State Congress office said that police has been informed about the incident.

 Sources in Patliputra police station here said that when they reached the venue the agitators had fled. They said they are investigation the matter.

Demonstrators alleged that Sinha was "dropped from a parachute" at RJD's behest and accused BPCC chief Madan Mohan Jha, AICC in-charge for the state Shaktisinh Gohil and state party campaign committee chief Akhilesh Prasad Singh of having "sold" the seat, which the Congress has not won so far.

Talking to PTI, Sinha, popularly known as "Bihari Babu", claimed that he has been receiving tremendous support from people while addressing election meetings in Patna city areas and other parts of the constituency.

Earlier on Sunday, Sinha was booed and heckled at the state headquarters where he addressed a party meeting wherein he told leaders and workers: “Once I make friends with somebody I do not change my loyalties”.

 Sinha holds the Patna Sahib Lok Sabha seat  which he won for the second consecutive term on a BJP ticket in 2014. He had been at loggerheads with the party leadership for quite some time, criticising Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party chief Amit Shah on a number of issues on social media and public platforms.

The BJP, while announcing its candidates for the Lok Sabha seats in the state last month, replaced him with Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad. Sinha subsequently joined the Congress which fielded him as its candidate from the sitting seat.

 Sinha, however, ruffled many feathers within the Congress when he recently visited Lucknow and campaigned for his wife Poonam, who is contesting the seat as the candidate of the BSP-Samajwadi Party-RLD combine.

 He also irked the Congress leadership with his statement that BSP supremo Mayawati and Samajwadi Party Akhilesh Yadav as prime ministerial candidates in view of the cold shoulder given by the regional leaders to Rahul Gandhi while finalising distribution of seats. PTI