Shatrughan Sinha to join Congress, will be 'star leader and star campaigner': Shakti Singh Gohil

BJP leader Shatrughan Sinha who was widely speculated to be leaving the party will join the Congress. 

Shakti Singh Gohil, Congress in-charge of Bihar said: "Shatrughan Sinha has decided that he will join the Congress party and will work as our star leader and star campaigner." 

The former actor had a long association with the BJP. He was the shipping and health and family welfare minister during former prime minister Vajpayee's regime. He won the Patna Sahib Lok Sabha seat in 2009 and then again during the BJP wave under Narendra Modi in 2014.

Sinha fell out of favour with the BJP after he began criticising the leadership of the BJP and was sidelined by the party in the last few years. BJP snubbed him recently while handing out the Lok Sabha ticket to Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad.

Congress hasn't officially stated that it would give the ticket to Sinha for the Patna Sahib seat with Gohil announcing that the former Bollywood star will be a "star leader and star campaigner".

On Wednesday, Sinha tweeted saying: "Father figure, most revered, learned, friend, philosopher, guide, guru & ultimate leader of the Bhartiya Janta Party, Shri. L.K.Advani has been shown the door/royal exit from the electoral politics without his consent & permission (as he was to be part of the decision makers."

"It has come as a rude shock & that too at this juncture of his illustrious political career, though it was only expected in this autocratic rule of 1 man show & 2 men army. This action  is not only disgraceful, in very poor taste & disappointing."

"For a man of the standing & stature of Shri. L.K.Advani & for other veterans like Shri. Murli Manohar Joshi & Shri.Shanta Kumar also...totally humiliating!" he added.