Trinamool Congress candidate from Asansol parliamentary constituency Shatrughan Sinha has countered the BJP's “outsider” charges asking whether Prime Minister Narendra Modi too was a outsider in Varanasi.
Sinha who filed his nomination from Asansol seat on Monday said “if I am a outsider here in Asansol what Prime Minister Narendra Modi is to Varanasi … is he a local person … if he can contest elections from Varanasi then the same theory holds good for others too.”
The Bollywood star and a former Union Minister in Atal Behari Vajpayee Cabinet said that he was a pure a Bengali as anyone else because he could speak the language, he had done a whole lot of films in Bengali.
“I can speak Bengali quite confidently ... though not as fluently as you … I am quite comfortable and confident with the language … I have done a number of Bengali films with Shakti Samanta and others ... Besides I am loved here deeply by the people of Bengal and Asansol,” Sinha a former Patna Sahib MP who fought the 2019 elections on Congress ticket but was defeated by former Union Minister Rabi Shankar Prasad said.
Sinha is pitched against BJP candidate and MLA Agnimitra Pal. CPI(M)’s Partho Mukherjee is contesting from Asansol seat.
On changing sides from BJP to the Congress and then the Trinamool Congress, Sinha said that he had always been a person who preferred to speak the truth. “I was the first person to speak out against GST and demonetization which brought tremendous hardship to crores of people,” he said.
Speaking about Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee he said that he was grateful to her for giving him so much honour. “Mamata didi is the leader of the masses and is loved by the people everywhere … I am grateful to her for the love and faith she reposed on me … I will try to live up to her expectations,” he said.
The Asansol seat fell vacant after sitting MP and another former Union Minister and BJP leader Babul Supriyo quit the saffron party to join the Trinamool Congress.
Supriyo is contesting from the Ballygunge Assembly seat in South Kolkata which fell vacant after the death of sitting minister and veteran politician Subrato Mukherjee.Supriyo who too filed his nomination on Monday expressed his gratitude to the Chief Minister for giving him the opportunity to contest on a TMC ticket.
“I am thankful to Didi for giving me this opportunity to contest from the prestigious Ballygunge constituency. I am really honoured and accept the challenge… I will not let her down.”
He faces BJP state spokesperson Keya Ghosh and CPI(M)’s S Halim.