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Updated: Mar 30, 2019 00:18 IST

Bollywood actor Sonakshi Sinha on Friday came out in support of her father Shatrughan Sinha leaving the Bharatiya Janata Party and joining the Congress and said that he should have done it long ago.

Speaking at HT India’s Most Stylish 2009 awards, Sonakshi Sinha said, “I think he should have done that long ago. He hadn’t been getting the respect he deserved.”

Lok Sabha MP Shatrughan Sinha had on Thursday ended all speculation about him joining the Congress after a meeting with the party president Rahul Gandhi at his residence in New Delhi.

Soon after his meeting with Rahul Gandhi, Sinha had announced that he would join the Congress.

“Joining will happen soon, we will give you a positive news during Navratri. I will join Congress now,” he had said.

In a tweet, senior Congress leader Shaktisinh Gohil said that Sinha is scheduled to join on April 6.

Sinha, a two-time sitting BJP MP from the Patna Sahib Lok Sabha seat, has been critical of the Narendra Modi government for the past couple of years. His utterances both in public and on social media had led to him being sidelined within the party and being replaced as the party’s candidate for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad will be contesting for the BJP from the Patna Sahib Lok Sabha constituency.

On Wednesday, in a four-part tweet, Sinha had come out in support of veteran BJP leader LK Advani and had criticised the BJP for not having fielded the veteran leader from his constituency Gandhinagar. BJP chief Amit Shah will be contesting from Gandhinagar, in his first outing in a Lok Sabha election.

In Bihar, the BJP is contesting the Lok Sabha election in alliance with the Janata Dal-United and the Lok Janshakti Party. The Congress on the other hand has tied up with the Rashtriya Janata Dal in the state. Bihar sends 40 members to the Lok Sabha.