BJP leader Shatrughan Sinha loses VIP status at Patna airport
On Monday, officials told the press that actor-turned politician and BJP leader Shatrughan Sinha would no longer be treated as a VIP at the Patna airport and will have to undergo regular frisking when travelling from the airport. The move comes at a time when speculation is rife that Sinha might switch to another party ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Here's more.
Sinha, a former Union minister, previously held the status of VIP at the Patna airport. Apart from skipping security checks, the actor-turned-politician held the privilege of bringing his car on to the Patna airport's tarmac. However, his privileges expired in June this year, and no orders for extending the privileges were given afterwards, said the Director of the Jay Prakash Narayan Airport in Patna.
"The facilities were extended to Sinha for a period which ended in June this year. No orders have been received for extending the same," said Patna airport Director Rajendra Singh Lahauriya.
Despite being elected to the Lok Sabha as a BJP MP from the Patna Sahib constituency in 2014, Sinha has fallen out with the saffron party. Of late, Sinha has been highly critical of the Modi government and the BJP leadership, and speculation is rife that he might contest the 2019 elections on a ticket from another party.
Although he was a cabinet minister in the first NDA government, he fell out with the BJP over the years after he was sidelined. Sinha's dissatisfaction with the saffron party grabbed the spotlight this year when he vocally criticized the Modi government over the Rafale deal. Earlier in the year, he had said that anybody could become Prime Minister, and that Rahul Gandhi was popular among the masses.
Just days back, in an exclusive interview with TNIE, Sinha said that Modi was a "picture of arrogance, arrogance, and more arrogance". The disgruntled BJP leader further criticized the Modi government and the BJP, saying that they had lost their connect to the masses. He concluded that Narendra Modi would not become the Prime Minister again.
