Shatrughan Sinha calls Akhilesh Yadav, Mayawati PM material, Congressmen sulk

PATNA: Actor turned politician Shatrughan Sinha, who is the Congress’s Patna Sahib candidate, had to face criticism and protest by a few party men on Sunday for calling Akhilesh Yadav and Mayawati as potential prime ministerial candidates.

“Khota sikka nahi chalega … Rahul Gandhi zindabad …. Sonia Gandhi zindabad,” shouted Congress workers at the party headquarters where Sinha was holding a meeting. Sources said some of the Congress workers were angry with Sinha for ignoring Congress chief Rahul Gandhi’s name, while naming Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh and BSP’s Mayawati as PM candidates while campaigning for his wife Poonam Sinha at Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh. Poonam is contesting from Lucknow Lok Sabha seat on the SP ticket.

However, Bihar Congress spokesperson Rajesh Rathore called Sunday’s drama as the BJP’s tactics to defame Congress. “There were just three people and we have never seen them at our party office. They were actually sent by the BJP to create nuisance,” Rathore alleged.

Shatrughan had also faced Congress workers’ ire while campaigning for his wife against Congress’s Acharya Pramod Krishnam and BJP’s Rajnath Singh in Lucknow. Shatrughan had tweeted, “To support my wife is my duty as a husband.”

In reply, Krishnam tweeted that Sinha had fulfilled his duty as a husband and now he should also fulfil his political dharma and campaign for Congress, a rival of SP in Uttar Pradesh.