BJP disowned me since I was associated with Advani: Shatrughan Sinha after joining Congress

Actor-turned-politician Shatrughan Sinha on Saturday quit the BJP on its Foundation Day and officially joined the Congress party in the presence of AICC general secretary KC Venugopal and Randeep Singh Surjewala. The BJP rebel accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party president Amit Shah of disowning him due to his association with veteran party leader LK Advani.

“BJP is one man show, two men army. There is no concept of collective decision in the BJP... Since I was associated to Advani ji, BJP started disowning me gradually... Advaniji has written the blog with great pain... I was not heard at all. When I tried... I was told to contact Amit Shah directly... Nobody else was willing to lend his ears to my grievances,” Sinha said.

The disgruntled BJP leader said that Narendra Modi turned democracy into autocracy and claimed that the PMO was running the show while ministers were not allowed to work freely.

“We have seen how democracy turned into autocracy. In the one-man show, two-men army, everything happens from Prime Minister's Office... the ministers can't work freely anyway,” he said during a press conference organised to announce the move.

Taking a dig at the BJP for the “shameful” treatment meted out to senior party leaders, Sinha said, “Advani ji was sent to Mardarshak Mandal which hasn't held even a single meeting so far. They did the same to Jaswant Singh, Yashwant Sinha... I was even told that I have been a critic and that I will not be given a cabinet post... but my image has been clean."

Terming the Congress a party of great nation builders, Sinha said, "I'm hopeful that the Grand Old National Party which I'm stepping into, will provide me with opportunities to serve our people, society and nation in terms of unity, prosperity, progress, development, and glory."

The BJP leader had been critical of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his ways of meddling in the affairs of other ministries. Recently, he had met Congress chief Rahul Gandhi after the BJP announced Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad as its candidate from Patna Sahib, a constituency he has been representing for 10 years.

He had announced that he will contest from Patna Sahib on another party’s ticket as there were already speculations that the BJP may not field Sinha from the constituency.