Shatrughan Sinha to fight from Asansol

Kolkata: Two days after Mamata Banerjee announced her decision to nominate veteran cine star Shatrughan Sinha for the Asansol Parliamentary by-elections, the former Union Minister on Tuesday said that he had joined the Trinamool Congress and would feel honoured to fight under the leadership of a “mass leader” like the Bengal Chief Minister.

Terming Banerjee the “tigress of Bengal” Sinha wrote on the twitter “Happy to share that on an invite from our own, tigress of Bengal, tried, tested, successful honourable CM, Bengal … I have joined TMC.

Shall be contesting under the dynamic leadership of a great lady, great leader of the masses in true sense, Mamata Banerjee.”

Sinha, a veteran BJP leader and a Union Minister in the Atal Behari Vajpayee candidate, had left that party to join the Congress. He however lost to BJP nominee Ravi Shankar Prasad from Patna Sahib constituency in 2019 general elections.

Banerjee had on Sunday said that Sinha would be contesting on Trinamool Congress ticket from Asansol, a seat that fell vacant after the sitting MP and former Union Minister Babul Supriyo left the BJP.

He too subsequently joined the Bengal ruling outfit and has been chosen by Banerjee as her party’s nominee for the Ballygunge Assembly seat which too fell vacant after the death of the veteran TMC leader and Bengal minister Subroto Mukherjee.

Sinha who earlier said that his “association with Bengal is half-a-century old” apparently referring to his role in Bengali film Jaban said winning



would not be difficult for him with “Mamata ji by my side.”

With an apparent reference of the BJP’s “outsider” barbs --- an accusation that the Chief Minister herself leveled on the BJP leadership ahead of the last year’s Assembly elections when the national leaders camped in Bengal to campaign for the saffron party --- Sinha claimed that he could speak Bengali and Hindi equally.

“I can speak Bengali like I speak Hindi. And in Asansol, I will be speaking in both when I meet people from all walks of life. I want to be in their hearts,” Sinha also referred to as Bihari babu said.

Asansol, the second largest city of Bengal and an industrial belt is known to have a substantial section of Hindi-speaking voters. “Almost 50 percent voters of this constituency speak Hindi though not all of them come from Bihar … and many of them are Sikhs, Marwaris etc.,” said a local Trinamool Congress leader adding “this is a master stroke that Didi has given to offset BJP’s general following among the Hindi-speaking population.

“While Sinha has his own charishma, the Chief Minister’s personal appeal will definitely carry the day for him.”

Meanwhile, sources in the Election Commission of India said that there were little chances of changing the dates of elections that has been scheduled for April 12. Earlier the State Government had written to the ECI requesting for a change of date considering the Higher Secondary (Class XII) exams the dates of which fall on April 11 and 13.