This Article is From Jul 26, 2015

No Political Angle to Meeting Nitish Kumar: BJP Leader Shatrughan Sinha

BJP leader Shatrughan Sinha addressed the press on Sunday afternoon

Patna: A day the controversy over his meeting with Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, BJP politician and former actor Shatrughan Sinha said while he was happy being with the BJP, he could not predict if he would be "thrown out tomorrow".

Mr Sinha had met Mr Kumar on Saturday -- hours after Prime Minister Narendra Modi attacked the Chief Minister while launching the BJP campaign for the coming assembly polls in the state. After the meeting, Mr Sinha had praised the Chief Minister, calling him the "Guardian of Bihar", raising eyebrows within the party.

Today, asked about his equations with his party, Mr Sinha said, "Can't say what will happen tomorrow, will I be thrown out (of the party), will I leave, I can't say."

But he also added that the reports that he had been unhappy with the BJP - as he had not been offered a cabinet post after the party's massive win the Lok Sabha election - were wrong.

The actor, who had been a minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, said: "Time and again I am told I am not happy with the party etc. All of this is not true... have been part and parcel of the BJP for a long time. At the moment I'm firmly with the BJP."

Explaining the meeting with Mr Kumar, Mr Sinha said he had always maintained cordial relations with opposition leaders, including Left leaders Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and the late Jyoti Basu in Bengal.

But he added that he didn't mix personal friendship with politics. "I think of Nitish as my elder brother, have admiration for him, so I meet him for tea whenever I am in Patna."

Me Sinha -- who had been critical of the BJP's decision to project Mr Modi as the star of its 2014 election campaign -- had earlier courted trouble by describing Mr Kumar, one of the PM's most vocal critics, as a "potential Prime Minister".

Only months later, he had done a U-turn, calling Mr Modi his "action hero."
.