Shotgun casts vote, keeps away from campaigning

Having remained conspicuous by his absence during poll campaigns, actor-turned-politician Shatrughan Sinha on Wednesday cast his vote in the Bihar Assembly elections but again vented ire at BJP state party leaders for “conspiring” against him.

“I have come to perform my national duty of casting vote at my native Bankipore seat,” Sinha said after exercising his franchise at St Severence School near his residence in Patna. Sinha, who apparently had put the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) into a tricky situation through his series of tweets, said he had come here merely to cast his vote and would leave the place on Wednesday itself.

Many candidates had requested for my presence in their constituencies to campaign but “some self-styled big BJP leaders of state did not allow it to happen,” he alleged but refused to elaborate. “Actors Hema Malini and Ajay Devgn campaigned for BJP candidates but their own ‘Bihari Babu’ was kept away from poll due to conspiracy by a section of self-styled big leaders of the party in Bihar,” a peeved Sinha said.