- Trinamool MP Shatrughan Sinha congratulated PM Modi on completing 12 years in office
- Sinha affirmed his loyalty to Mamata Banerjee amid party's leadership crisis and defections
- He called congratulating PM Modi a "national duty", despite BJP-Trinamool rivalry
Trinamool Congress MP and actor Shatrughan Sinha's congratulatory wishes for Prime Minister Narendra Modi on completing 12 years in office came while the Trinamool is trying to stay afloat in West Bengal.
Sinha has said he will always be with "Didi" and not abandon her in hard times, referring to former chief minister Mamata Banerjee who faces an exodus of key leaders and the party's possible breakup in the hands of rebel MLAs and MPs.
In an interview with NDTV, Sinha sought to calm down the buzz and explained why he wished the prime minister, whose party BJP has been a fierce rival of the Trinamool and Mamata Banerjee.
"You know I am known or notorious for my outspokenness, for calling a spade a spade, and for presenting my views in a simple yet bold and carefree manner. Whatever I say, whatever I do, I do it thoughtfully without any selfish motive," Sinha told NDTV today.
"When 12 years have been completed today by the prime minister - the prime minister who is yours, who is mine and who belongs to the entire country - and a prime minister who has led for the longest tenure, to congratulate him at this moment, I considered it and I understand it as my national duty," he said.
"I fulfilled my duty. I wished, greeted, blessed and congratulated the prime minister in a true sportsman spirit," the actor-turned-politician said.
There has been a strong buzz that Sinha is one of the Trinamool MPs in the list of Lok Sabha rebels who may join the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). He had joined the BJP in the early 80s when it was a party of just two MPs and served as its star campaigner during the Atal Bihari Vajpayee and LK Advani era. He was a Union minister in the Vajpayee government.
The two-term MP from Patna Sahib later quit the BJP and joined the Congress. He fought from the same seat in the 2019 polls but lost to former Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad. In 2022, Sinha won the Lok Sabha bypoll from Asansol on a Trinamool ticket. He retained the seat in the 2024 general elections.
On his support to Mamata Banerjee, Sinha told NDTV that he "stands by people through thick and thin."
"Those who stood by me in my time of trouble, in my time of distress, when I was made to lose the 2019 election, as people know. After that, no one came forward. First of all, Mamata Banerjee came forward to encourage me and at the same time, she insisted that I contest the by-election from Asansol where I had never been until today," he said.
"When I went there, I won with a record number of votes for the very first time, as you all know. Even after that, in the second election there, the victory was by a very good margin. So, at the moment of trouble, the time of distress when Mamata ji stood by us, today it is my duty, my responsibility to stand by her in her time of trouble or sorrow," he said.
