Lok Sabha Election 2019: Shatrughan Sinha quit the BJP in March this year. (File)
Shatrughan Sinha, the Congress candidate from Bihar's Patna Saheb constituency, on Thursday reacted to reports that the BJP decided the route of its chief Amit Shah's roadshow to show Mr Sinha his "aukaat" or worth. The actor-turned-politician said the remark would backfire like Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 2015 "DNA" comment which, he said, led to the party's loss in assembly polls.
"I have learnt that some people say he is coming here to show me my aukaat (worth). This is going to backfire. It seems the BJP has not learnt its lessons from the assembly polls of 2015 when the DNA remark had cost the NDA dearly," Mr Sinha was quoted by news agency PTI as saying.
PM Modi had attacked Nitish Kumar during 2015 assembly election when the JDU chief was Lalu Yadav's alliance partner, saying there was something wrong in his DNA. The BJP had lost the elections. Two years after forming the government, Mr Kumar dumped Mr Yadav over corruption allegations against him and his family. He later formed the government with support from the BJP.
"The country belongs to everyone. If they are coming with the right mind, respectfully, not to show aukaat, then they are welcome. They will get chai and pakoda and the public will ask them questions. They have already seen the results of their DNA comment. If they are coming to show aukaat, then I will say, the Bihar family will show them their aukaat," he told NDTV.
The details of Amit Shah's roadshow, released to the media on Wednesday, have surprised many. He has chosen one of the shortest routes through the constituency but it will pass by the home and lanes where Shatrughan Sinha grew up. The roadshow will start at the "Kadamkuan Durga Temple" just a few meters from the ancestral house of Shatrughan Sinha and it will pass through Sahitya Sammelan, Thakurbari road, Bakarganj and Baripath before ending at Udyog Bhavan. The stretch is hardly two-km long but will touch every area connected to Shatrughan Sinha, who is often called "Bihari Babu" by fans.
BJP leaders confident of victory say the route was chosen to prove a point - that whatever support Shatrughan Sinha claims in Patna Saheb is mainly because he was in the BJP.
Shatrughan won from the constituency in 2009 and 2014. The 72-year-old, a sharp critic of the BJP leadership in recent years, finally walked out of the party when Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad was fielded from Patna Saheb.