Patna: Actor-turned-politician and Congress leader Shatrughan Sinha expressed confidence Sunday that he would retain the Patna Sahib Lok Sabha seat for the third consecutive term despite a formidable challenge posed by the BJP, which has fielded Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad from the seat. He also said that the BJP will suffer a whitewash in Bihar and UP.
Sinha, whose wife Poonam has also made her electoral debut in Lucknow against Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, said for the BJP it would be ‘soopda saaf’ (whitewash) at the hands of the ‘Mahagathbandhan’ in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, which together account for 120 Lok Sabha seats. In the 2014 elections, the NDA had bagged 100 out of the 120 seats.
The sitting MP also scoffed at claims made by the BJP, which he quit last month ending three decades of association, that it was poised to win 300 seats on its own.
“They did not win 300 in 2014 despite the Modi lahar (wave). Now when the lahar has become a kahar (curse), making such a claim is just bluster,” he told reporters outside the polling station where he cast his vote.
PTI