New Delhi: Actor-turned-politician Shatrughan Sinha on Monday expressed his gratitude to Trinamool Congress (TMC) party president, Mamata Banerjee, for declaring him a candidate for the Asansol Lok Sabha seat and said he wants to take his party's slogan `Khela hobe' (Game is on) across the country.
Simultaneously, Sinha rubbished the allegation of being an "outsider" leveled by opponents. Sinha has been a member of Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha twice.
"Mamata Banerjee holds the future of the country. I will strengthen her hands in expanding 'khela hobe' across the country," said Sinha as quoted by news agency ANI.
"Khela hobe" was the battle cry given by Banerjee in the fiercely contested assembly elections in West Bengal last year which the TMC had won in a resounding manner.
"I feel honoured by Mamata Banerjee herself announcing my name as the TMC candidate from Asansol in the Lok Sabha bypoll.
"She is a tried, tested and successful politician who holds the nation's future hope against 'divisive politics' pursued by the government of the day," Sinha told PTI.
Sinha was a minister in the National Democratic Alliance government led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee and later quit the BJP and contested the 2019 Lok Sabha elections from Patna Sahib on a Congress ticket. He lost to Ravi Shankar Prasad in this election. Banerjee has made him a candidate in the by-election to be held on the Asansol seat.
"I am no less a Bengali than any other Bengali. I am not an outsider. Bengali language Bengali culture has been my love I have done many films in Bengali from Gautam Ghose's "Antarjali Jatra" to Shakti Samanta's "Mastan" and the Bengali language that I speak is not a dubbed language, he told PTI.
"How can anybody call me an 'outsider'? Like my 'janmabhoomi' (birth place) Bihar, Bengal has always been my weakness," he reasoned.
"Moreover, Asansol has a cosmopolitan population where besides my dear Bengali people, citizens from Bihar, Jharkhand and elsewhere are residing there in great numbers. If I am called an 'outsider' in Asansol, will you say the same for the Prime Minister contesting election from Varanasi?" he said.
Sinha's remarks came in the midst of fights by the resistance BJP asking why the TMC, which had won the assembly polls on the poll board of 'Bangaliana' (Bengali social qualities) has nominated an "outcast" from the Lok Sabha seat in the state.
"I am an all India personality in terms of popularity, in terms of work. I have been blessed by people from all over the country, right from Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh to Haryana and Punjab, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Bengal.
The "insider-outsider" banter in West Bengal acquired strength before the state election, while the ruling TMC had named the BJP as a "party of outsiders".
Whenever asked as to why he left Congress unexpectedly, Sinha declined to remark on it.
"I don't want to comment on it now. Because the focus is now on winning the Asansol seat," the actor turned politician known for his signature dialogue "khamosh."
On his choice of TMC, he said, "One should go in a new and better direction to do something good for the country."
Sinha said despite being in an alternate party, he generally had a good connection with Banerjee.
"Despite being a BJP MP, I had participated in her opposition rally at Brigade `Maidan' (grounds) in Kolkata in 2019. I have always appreciated her dynamic leadership and it will be a privilege for me to work in the party headed by her," Sinha said.
Former Union minister Yashwant Sinha had joined Banerjee's party ahead of the eve of Bengal polls and presently Shatrughan Sinha will be with her as a part of the TMC's efforts to challenge the BJP in the 2024 general elections.
(With PTI inputs)