Union Minister and BJP Lok Sabha candidate Ravi Shankar Prasad on Saturday questioned actor-turned-politician Shatrughan Sinha’s commitment to the Congress, his new party, for favouring SP leader Akhilesh Yadav as the prime ministerial candidate.
Mr. Prasad, BJP nominee for the Patna Sahib parliamentary seat, also claimed that the “opportunistic alliance” of the Opposition parties in Bihar has disintegrated as RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav did not share stage with Congress president Rahul Gandhi in his rallies.
The Union Minister is now in direct contest with Mr. Sinha, the two-time BJP MP from Patna Sahib, who is a Congress candidate this time.
Talking to reporters, Mr. Prasad said he would not name his rival during the entire campaigning. To a query about Mr. Sinha favouring Akhilesh Yadav as the PM candidate, Mr. Prasad said, “You better ask this question to the Patna Sahib MP. He has been an MP for 22 years. He has now gone to a new party. He should tell you what is the yardstick for commitment in the new party.”
Mr. Sinha, despite being a Congress candidate, had said in a TV interview that he sees the SP leader as the prime ministerial candidate. Mr. Sinha’s wife Poonam Sinha had on April 18 filed her nomination papers from Lucknow as a Samajwadi Party nominee against BJP candidate and Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh.
