For several hours after the BJP dropped him from the list of the BJP candidates for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Shatrughan Sinha didn’t say a word. Then, he started. In a series of tweets, Shatrughan Sinha, the one of the BJP’s sharpest homegrown critic, flung a series of stinging darts at his party bosses.

It was mostly at the way, he said, they had treated BJP patriarch LK Advani, 91, and other party veterans. But the actor-politician did signal his disappointment at the way he had been treated too. He, however, insisted that it was still ‘tolerable’.

And he, Sinha said in a string of seven tweets, “able and was capable of answering your people back in the same coin”.

“Remember Newton’s third law...every action has an equal and opposite reaction. And I am capable of paying back,’ said the actor-politician who had debuted in politics nearly three decades ago. But Shatrughan Sinha, who is often called Shotgun for his caustic remarks, seemed to have had a falling out of sorts with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah, mostly after they did not involve him in campaigning.

Sinha, who saw himself as a star campaigner, saw the writing on the wall and has been, for a couple of years now, the most-vocal critic of the party leadership.

The two-time Lok Sabha MP from Bihar’s Patna Sahib constituency has been widely expected to walk out of the party to align with the joint opposition camp led by the Rashtriya Janata Dal in Bihar. He had earlier promised to unveil his plans on Friday. There have been indications that he could identify his destination over the next few days, particularly now that the BJP has named Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad as the NDA candidate from Sinha’s constituency.

The Bihar announcement came days after the party named Amit Shah as the BJP candidate from Gandhinagar that Lal Krishna Advani has represented.

It is a decision that has also triggered a sharp reaction from BJP ally Shiv Sena. Advani has not commented on Amit Shah replacing him. But people close to him have insisted that he was on board.

Shatrughan Sinha accused the BJP leadership of “orchestrating the departure of a most respected friend, philosopher, guide, father figure & ultimate leader of the party” from the “political arena and election”.

“That too through the replacement of Mr. Advani by none other than the man who is also the President of the party but whose image or personality is no match nor a patch on him. This has been done deliberately & intentionally & hasn’t gone down well with the people of the country.

“He is a father figure & no one can approve of such a treatment to a father figure,” he tweeted, adding that the way the party treated former ministers Yashwant Sinha, Arun Shourie and Murli Manohar Joshi “smacks of ingratitude”.

“Nonetheless, people are watching at this hour, to give a befitting reply for all this that is being done by the one man show & 2 men army company. Long Live Shri. Advaniji! Jai Hind!” he said.

First Published: Mar 23, 2019 23:12 IST