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Updated: Jan 19, 2019 14:36 IST

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) rebel leader Shatrughan Sinha who showed up at Mamata Banerjee’s United India rally Saturday refused to be drawn into endorsing the Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee as the next Prime Minister and remained ambivalent.

“She is a national leader in true sense. She is really a tried, tested and experienced leader... Still there is time for people see the writing on the wall. There is a long gap between performances and promises. That gap needs to be handled well. The people will decide who will be the next Prime Minister, it is not our job,” ANI quoted him as saying. (Follow live updates here)

Along with the actor-turned-politician, two former Union ministers from the previous NDA government - Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shouries are also attending the mammoth rally. Sinha, who regularly baits his own party, said he did not come to the rally as a BJP MP.

“I am not talking to you as the representative of the Bharatiya Janata Party, but at the moment I have come under the leadership of Yashwant Sinha, who has just created Rashtra Manch. It is not a political party, it is a movement. The issue of most of the people who have come here is not Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Our issues are demonetisation, complicated GST, among others,” Sinha said.

He also refused to answer queries about the Ayodhya land dispute case. The Patna Sahib MP simply said, ‘Khamosh’ (quiet) in his trademark style and walked away when asked about the Ram Temple.

Earlier this week, BJP’s Bihar deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi had asked Sinha who has been a vocal critic of his party, to quit.

During a TV debate on Tuesday Modi said Sinha has “fallen into the bad company of Yashwant Sinha.”

“Shatrughan Sinha is also my icon but the manner in which he is targeting the BJP, he should quit,” Modi said.