lok-sabha-elections

Updated: Apr 25, 2020 19:49 IST

Lok Sabha MP Shatrughan Sinha on Thursday ended speculation over his joining the Congress after meeting party president Rahul Gandhi at his residence in New Delhi. After meeting Gandhi, Sinha announced he will join the Congress.

“Joining will happen soon, we will give you a positive news during Navaratri. I will join Congress now,” news agency ANI quoted Sinha as saying.

Senior Congress leader Shaktisinh Gohil tweeted that Sinha will join the party on April 6. “BJP MP Shatrugna Sinha ji met our Congress President Shri @RahulGandhi today and in national interest has decided to join tur Congress. Hw wil formally join Congress on April 6,” Gohil wrote on Twitter.

This came after another senior Congress leader RK Anand said that a decision on Shatrughan Sinha’s induction in the party was expected “after 2 pm”. News agency ANI quoted Anand as saying, “It will be decided after 2 pm, there is no fight on his joining or his seat, just a delay. Adjustments are happening.”

On Wednesday, Bihar Congress election campaign committee chairman Akhilesh Prasad Singh had said that Shatrughan Sinha would join the party “in New Delhi on March 28 at 11.30 am”. Singh had also announced that Sinha will be the Congress candidate from Patna Sahib.

On his part, Sinha praised Gandhi after he promised to implement a minimum income guarantee scheme if the Congress is voted to power in the Lok Sabha polls. Sinha called Gandhi a “master of situation” indicating that the Congress president has set the narrative for the Lok Sabha elections.

Shatrughan Sinha is a two-time sitting BJP Member of Parliament from Patna Lok Sabha seat and has been critical of the Narendra Modi government for past couple of years. He has been sidelined in the BJP, which replaced him with Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad as the Lok Sabha candidate from Patna Sahib constituency.

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

The RJD was said to be keen on having Sinha as its candidate from Patna Sahib constituency. Sinha and RJD supremo Lalu Prasad share a cordial relation. But the Congress has always contested the Patna Sahib seat whenever it allied with the RJD in Bihar. So, the party wanted to field Sinha on its own symbol. This little tug-of-war apparently has caused delay in decision of Sinha joining the Congress.