Bihari Babu is now ‘Babu Mosai’. Three years after he lost the 2019 Lok Sabha elections from his hometown in Patna, actor-turned-politician Shatrughan Sinha on Saturday avenged his defeat by winning the Asansol parliamentary by-poll as the Trinamool Congress (TMC) candidate.
Shotgun, as Shatru is fondly called, defeated the BJP’s nominee Agnimitra Paul in a fiercely and bitterly fought by-election, which was necessitated following the resignation of the BJP MP from Asansol, Babul Supriyo. Having failed to find a berth in the Narendra Modi Cabinet, Babul decided to change colours for greener pastures and joined the Trinamool Congress. In the process, he quit as a Lok Sabha member. Mamata Banerjee personally named Shatrughan as her party nominee (from Asansol) last month, thereby taking everyone by surprise, as Shatrughan was until then a Congress leader.
The former MP from Patna Sahib had joined the grand old party on the eve of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections after he was denied the BJP ticket. But he lost to his former colleague Ravi Shankar Prasad (of the BJP) from his birthplace, which had earlier sent him to the Lok Sabha twice (in 2009 and 2014).
Though he remained in political wilderness for around three years, he never missed an opportunity to cast aspersions on his former party bosses by calling the BJP “a one-man party and two-men army”, without naming Narendra Modi and Amit Shah.
In fact, Shatrughan, who has been four-time MP (twice in Rajya Sabha and twice as Lok Sabha member) has a history of creating more enemies than friends: be it within Bollywood or Indian politics. In the late 70s and early 80s, he had a running feud with Amitabh Bachchan, although the latter never joined issue with him.
As the BJP MP, he was seen more as an Advani protege. In fact, it was LK Advani who helped him become a Cabinet Minister in the Vajpayee regime. First as a Union Health Minister and then as the Shipping Minister, Shatrughan was the first actor from Tinsel Town to become a Cabinet Minister. (Vinod Khanna was MoS in the Ministry of External Affairs, and Sunil Dutt was a Cabinet Minister in the UPA regime).
“I have handled health as well as wealth [in lighter vein referring to Shipping ministry] portfolio during Vajpayee Ji, but the present BJP leadership never gave any weightage to my ability and capability,” he told this journalist, dwelling at length why he assailed the BJP top leadership.
“Presently, Mamata Banerjee has the leadership quality to checkmate the BJP. She is a tried, tested and successful politician. ‘Khela Hobe’. Just wait,” said Shatrughan, reiterating the TMC’s much-hyped coinage, amid indications about TMC’s national ambitions.
On being questioned that he, the Bihari Babu, will always be treated as an outsider in Asansol, Shatrughan said: “Have you ever asked how someone from Gujarat travelled all the way to Uttar Pradesh to contest the Lok Sabha election from Varanasi? If not, then why question Bihari Babu, who is now Babu Mosai. I am as much a Bengali as anyone else.”
To buttress his point, he lists out the Bengali movies he acted in four decades back. “I have worked in Gautam Ghose’s ‘Antarjali Jatra’ and Shakti Samanta’s ‘Mastan’. I am an all-India actor-cum-leader and enjoy affinity across the States. Right now, my aim is to strengthen the hands of my party supremo Mamata Banerjee and raise the voice in Parliament against the BJP’s anti-people policies.”
(Main/featured picture on top by N K Sareen)
The views are the author’s own, and The News Porter bears no responsibility for the same
A very good read. Enjoyed thoroughly the way author senior journalist Sri Abhay Kumar has written it.