Shatrughan Sinha says daughter Sonakshi Sinha will not campaign for him in Patna Sahib

PATNA: Actor-turned-politician and Patna Sahib’s sitting MP

Shatrughan Sinha

, who arrived here on Friday for the first time after quitting the BJP and joining the Congress, said he would win the Patna Sahib seat for “a record third time with a record margin.”


Sinha as a BJP candidate had won Patna Sahib seat in 2014 by a huge margin of 2,65,805 votes defeating his nearest rival and Congress candidate and Bhojpuri film actor Kunal Singh who bagged 2,20,100 votes. His victory margin was highest in Bihar in 2014 general elections.

In 2009, he as a BJP candidate had defeated RJD’s Vijay Kumar and Bollywood actor Sekhar Suman, who was then fighting on Congress ticket.

Earlier on arrival at the local airport, Sinha was accorded a rousing welcome by the Congress workers and hundreds of his old supporters from his constituency. From the airport, Sinha went to the state Congress office at Sadaqat Ashram here where he was accorded warm welcome by the state Congress leaders led by its president Madan Mohan Jha.

“I had won the 2014

Lok Sabha

polls from Patna Sahib with the highest margin for any seat in Bihar. This time, a new record of margin will be created,” he told reporters at the airport.

Sinha joined Congress on April 6 in Delhi before Congress president Rahul Gandhi. Congress has decided to field him from Patna Sahib against the BJP nominee and Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad.

“You all know under what circumstances I had to leave the BJP. You people are very much aware how Ravi Shankar Prasad was given the BJP ticket while I still was in the saffron party. Nobody even showed the courtesy to have a word with me on issue of ticket distribution. I truly believe that the Congress for me would mean a new direction and a better condition,” Sinha, popularly known as Bihari Babu, told his supporters at the airport and Sadaqat Ashram.

He also said that he had come to Patna Sahib once again to fulfil the promise he had been making all through that the “location will be the same even though the situation may be different.”

“I am back to the same location,” he said amidst thunderous applause from the supporters.

Responding to query from media, Sinha said his daughter Sonakshi Sinha did not campaign for him in the past nor would she do so this time. “She is apolitical. Moreover, I am not dependent on star campaigners from outside to win an election in the city where I born and grew up,” he said.

“Moreover, even in my past two elections I had not requested my friends in the BJP like home minister Rajnath Singh, union minister Sushma Swaraj and former union minister Yashwant Sinha to campaign for me in Patna Sahib, because everybody here knows me very well,” he said.

After getting warm welcome at Patna airport, Sinha tweeted, “Just landed in Patna for the first time after moving away from the One man show, Two men army...into a new and better direction with the Congress party, under the dynamic leadership of the young face & future of the nation, @rahulgandhi. My regards to family friend Lalu Prasad Yadav and his family, including the rising star and face of Bihar's future, @tejasviyadav. What a loving welcome! Humbled by the rousing reception. Am brimming with hope, determination, conviction and confidence that I will continue to serve my birthplace and the people I love so much, and where I receive so much love...long live Patna, Jai Bihar, Jai Hind.”