Not afraid of expulsion from BJP, says Shatrughan Sinha

January 19, 2019 06:38 pm | Updated 06:38 pm IST - Kolkata

Actor-turned-politician Shatrughan Sinha speaks at the Trinamool Congress rally in Kolkata on January 19, 2019.

Actor-turned-politician Shatrughan Sinha speaks at the Trinamool Congress rally in Kolkata on January 19, 2019.

Sharing the stage with Opposition leaders in Kolkata, disgruntled BJP leader Shatrughan Sinha on January 19 called for changing the government in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and said he was not afraid of being removed from the ruling party.

He insisted he would continue to “show mirror” to the party and call “a spade a spade”.

Mr. Shatrughan Sinha has been at odds with his party over several issues and has criticised the demonetisation exercise and the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax. He has said he was attending the rally hosted by Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee in Kolkata as a representative of the Rashtra Manch, a political action group launched by former BJP leader Yashwant Sinha.

“My elder brother Yashwant Sinha was saying that after this I will be definitely removed from the party, I told him koi baat nahi hai (no problem),” he said at the rally attended by several Opposition leaders.

Known for his powerful dialogues in Hindi movies, Mr. Shatrughan Sinha said he was in Bharatiya Janata Party but before that he “is with Bharat ki janata ”.

Two days ago, Mr. Sinha said he did not receive “respect” in the BJP and will attend the Kolkata rally, which was being projected as a show of strength by anti-BJP political parties.

Mr. Shatrughan Sinha was called to make his speech after several senior leaders — such as former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda, NCP chief Sharad Pawar, and Chief Ministers H.D. Kumaraswami, N. Chandrababu Naidu and Arvind Kejriwal — had made their speech.

He spoke at length and attacked the Modi government on the controversial Rafale fighter jet deal, demonetisation and implementation of GST.

“If you keep suppressing facts, people will continue to say chaukidar chor hain ,” he said, using the phrase Congress president Rahul Gandhi has been using to criticise the Prime Minister on the Rafale jet deal issue.

Mr. Shatrughan Sinha praised Ms. Banerjee, Mr. Gandhi, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav.

Mr. Shatrughan Sinha, who served in Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ministry, said there was lokshahi (rule of the people) during Vajpayee’s tenure and now it’s tanashahi (dictatorship).

He urged all leaders present at the dais to walk together to usher a change in the country and facilitate a new leadership to take over.

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