BJP MP from Patna Saheb Shatrughan Sinha came out with all guns blasting at the BJP leadership questioning the criterion for ticket distribution.
In an interview to The Tribune, Sinha asked: “If Poonam Mahajan (daughter of Pramod Mahajan) can be given a ticket, why can't Poonam Sinha be given a Rajya Sabha ticket? This is now a party where you show me the man, I will show you the rule. Despite the media plants by my own party leaders, I never demanded this for my wife, but now I want to know the logic?”
Commenting on BJP leaders Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj, Venkaiah Naidu and Ravi Shankar Prasad, Sinha said : “I do not believe these are my leaders. I do not accept them as such. They are mere colleagues and some of them are far junior to me”.
“I praised Rahul Gandhi for trying to reach out to villages across India. Some of these silly leaders of my party wanted action taken against me. I now want to ask these leaders what face they have and how do they justify time and again praising Sardar Patel and Mahatma Gandhi”, Sinha questioned, taking a dig at party leader L K Advani and Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi.
Sinha is angry that he was not made party general secretary. He recently made up with his co-star Rekha in Bollywood. Sinha said: “I have more expectations from Rekha than BJP. The less said about the BJP the better”.
Shotgun questioned the treatment meted out to Uttarakhand former CM B C Khanduri and Yashwant Sinha. “What fault had they committed? Were they corrupt or were they failures? Yet people who have failed the party have been rewarded. It becomes embarrassing for me to go out in the public and face these questions as to why the BJP is behaving like this”.
Asked whether he was disillusioned with the party leadership, Sinha said, he was still inspired by former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee. “I earlier never believed that the RSS should take over the BJP. You know I am not from the RSS but, now the mess has worsened so much it is the only option. Once upon a time the BJP was inspired by the ideals of Jayaprakash Narayan, my idol. He was against dynasty, corruption and bad governance. Now with the induction of Poonam Mahajan and some of our actions, we can be equated with the Congress”.
Coming back to his wife, Sinha said, plans and leaks about his seeking a Rajya Sabha ticket for his wife were organized by some party leaders. “I have never talked about my domestic matters outside the house. There should be some dignity and decency but “ab inhone ghar ki baat bahar nikai hai toh ab baat door talak jayegi. I will not take it lying down. Poonam Sinha has served the BJP for 20 years. She is an able and talented woman”.
