The Aam Admi Party has no plans to bring “Bihari Babu” Shatrughan Sinha, currently BJP’s Lok Sabha MP from Patna Sahib, into the party fold as of now.
According to a source in AAP, it makes no political sense to bring Sinha into the party. “There is no election in Bihar in the near future. Why will he quit the membership of Lok Sabha now? It makes no political sense for either AAP or him to desert his party to join us,” the source told The Sunday Guardian.
There was speculation in political circles that AAP was trying to woo Shatrughan Sinha to join it following a tweet by AAP leader Kumar Vishwas. Vishwas had hinted that Navjot Sidhu, Shatrughan Sinha and Kirti Azad may join AAP.
The source argued that Sinha does not have organisational skills and his entry into the party at this moment may not bear fruit. “He is a well-known and popular face in Bihar, but he cannot lay the foundation of the organisation. Thus, the move will not be beneficial for us,” he added.
Sinha has been defiant of the BJP leadership for quite some time. In fact, he had also met Aam Admi Party leader and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal last year and said that the AAP government was working fine. He also shared the dais with Kejriwal, much to the inconvenience of the BJP leadership.
The AAP source, however, said that the party would take a call when the time was “right”. “The party may think of bringing some good faces from different parts in order to widen its acceptability. There are many areas where the party is spreading out slowly, but steadily. But this is not the right moment as far as Shatrughan Sinha is concerned,” the source said.
Vishwas’ hint came following Navjot Singh Sidhu upping his ante against the BJP leadership. In a press conference this week, Sidhu alleged that the BJP wanted to keep him away from his state Punjab.
Though Sidhu has resigned from the Rajya Sabha, he is yet to resign from the BJP. The party’s Punjab unit, too, maintains that Sidhu is still a part of the BJP.