The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) released its second list of candidates contesting in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections on Saturday, March 23. Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has replaced actor-turned-politician Shatrughan Sinha for the Patna Sahib constituency.
On multiple occasions, Shatrughan Sinha, known as the black sheep of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has publicly criticised various policies, including demonetisation, GST, among others. Recently, he also criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a day before Holi.
In the Mahagathbandhan rally, organised by West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee in Kolkata, Sinha was seen taking centre stage with the Opposition leaders. This could have been a reason for the snub since he must have rubbed the BJP in a wrong way.
In many recent tweets, the ex-Patna Sahib MP also hinted that it was time for new leadership.
Speculations are rife that Sinha will soon be joining the Congress party. Sinha had in many instances shared a dais with the Opposition.
"It is almost final that Shatrughan ji will join Congress either on March 24 or 25...Congress is a better option as it would provide Shatrughan ji the opportunity to be in national politics," reported a source close to the situation was quoted as saying by Times of India.
The source went on to say that Sinha would contest from Patna Sahib Constituency, his previous one with BJP.
BJP released its first list on Thursday evening with Prime Minister Narendra Modi contesting from Varanasi while the BJP chief Amit Shah will contest for the first time in the elections from Gandhinagar in Gujarat.
The second list, which was released on Saturday, saw Nawada MP and Union minister Giriraj Singh replacing Syed Shahnawaz Hussain in the Bhagalpur constituency. Rajiv Pratap Rudy still has his BJP candidature from Saran Lok Sabha seat. While LJP Chirag Paswan will be fielding his votes from the Jamui Constituencies.
