"Only PM Modi's jacket new": Shatrughan Sinha's jab at BJP manifesto

Shatrughan Sinha alleged there is no place left in the BJP for dialogue and its leadership has no regard for veterans citing examples of LK Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi and Yashwant Sinha.

Shatrughan Sinha

New Delhi: Shatrughan Sinha took a swipe at BJP’s poll manifesto saying the only thing new in it was "PM Narendra Modi’s jacket". The actor-turned politician quit the saffron party last week after having associated with it for nearly three decades to join the Congress. On ABP News’ show ‘Shikhar Sammelan’, Sinha quite characteristically heaped praise on Congress and its leaders, saying “the grand old party is the biggest, strongest, and the largest contributor to the development of the country.” Extolling the virtues of Rahul Gandhi, Sinha said the ‘dynamic leader’ in a year showed who is “Pappu” is and who is "Feku" by bringing 3 states under Congress' kitty. The 72-year-old who is popularly known as ‘Bihari Babu’, said not getting an election ticket wasn't the prime reason to quit BJP but at the same time also disclosed that his ‘well-wisher’ Lalu Prasad Yadav advised him to contest on Congress ticket from Patna Sahib as it has gone to the Congress quota in the mahagathbandhan (grand alliance) seat sharing formula. He alleged there is no place left in the BJP for dialogue and its leadership has no regard for veterans citing examples of LK Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi and Yashwant Sinha. Spelling out reasons for remaining miffed with the BJP, Sinha said one of the key reasons was that there was no dialogue in the party. “PM Modi never had a conversation with me. He never tried to enquire what is bothering me. Finally, despite me winning Patna Sahib with record margin, ticket was given to my friend (RS Prasad). Well, that isn't a problem but I should have been consulted,” he said. Sinha said he considers Ravishankar Prasad a "family friend" and believes the battle in Patna Sahib will be fought between political ideologies. He hoped there would be some workers and leaders from his former party who wouldn’t campaign against him as he had shared a bond with them for several years. Slamming demonetization and GST brought by the Centre in the last few years, Sinha said “the note ban had brought people on roads and on top of it was imposed a complicated GST that benefited only chartered accountants.” Sinha said the BJP was adept in making the nation believe that Modi is still popular while the truth is the prime minister doesn’t have the courage to answer tough questions.“There's no Modi wave in the country. Whatever you are seeing is a well-choreographed, scripted event. Not even one press conference the prime minister has dared to address so far.”