Lok Sabha Elections 2024: Shotgun for the front seat!

Asansol that borders Jharkhand in a sense is a bit of a Bihar within Bengal since the former two states were the same once Over 50 per cent of it is primarily Hindi speaking This migration has everything to do with large coalfields a steel plant and a massive railway establishment that define this trading industrial townldquoThere is also a huge middleclass heremdashkamaal ka fascinating culture of togetherness no discord common religious celebrations It suits me coming from the film industry thatrsquos so similarrdquo says Bollywood veteran Shatrughan SinhaSinha is fighting for reelection from here on Mamata Bannerjeersquos TMC ticket He won the seat in the 2022 bypoll once BJPrsquos Babul Supriyo vacated switching over to TMC himself Sinharsquos win was the first for TMC from AsansolFivetime MP Sinha 77 equally a BJP veteranmdashhaving been with the party pretty much since its inceptionmdashmoved over to the Congress first and TMC eventually a couple of years agoHersquos currently canvassing in the coal beltrsquos scorching heat known for its blacksoot laden pollutionmdashexuding the trademarked cheerful boisterous spirit still coughing a few times during this chat ldquoItrsquos fine just the dustrdquo he says Asansol polls on May 13Edited excerpts from the interviewWhat issues are you going to Asansolrsquos people withThese are general elections Issues to highlight are nationalmdashprimarily to do with undelivered promises of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP At one end they say India is the worldrsquos fifth largest economy and that 25 crore people have been lifted from povertySo have 80 crore people also been pushed into poverty That they have to be fed for free Then therersquos mehengai inflation unemployment farmersrsquo income which was supposed to have been doubledhellipThe icing on the cake is ldquochanda ka dhandardquo donation scandal which got exposed with electoral bonds People can also see through what the CBI and ED are doingAt the other end you watch BJP take up Sandeshkhali in Bengal I understand that because of the confusion between HCrsquos verdict and CBI on the case the action taken on Sandeshkhali got delayedBut for PM Modi to repeatedly attack Mamata Didi Indiarsquos only woman CM with ldquosharm nahin aatirdquo yoursquove got no shame taunts over Sandeshkhali Kathua Hathras Manipur Karnatakahellip No shame there I never say vote for me Vote for truth development and commitmentYour opponent BJPrsquos SS Ahluwalia likewise has been a parliamentarian over three decades He switched over from Congress to BJP in 1999 Yoursquove had the longest history with BJP went over to Congress then TMChellipFirstly my opponent is not my enemy I wish SS Ahluwalia well He was brought in last minute to contest from Asansol while he has left work pending at the adjoining BurdhmanDurgapur where he scraped through with a 2000 votemargin in 2019Irsquod been in the BJP from when it had two MPs in 1984 My eyes opened when I realised that my fatherfigure LK Advani friend philosopher guide Murli Manohar Joshi let alone friends Yashwant Sinha Arun Shourie Jaswant Singh were all getting sidelinedAnd that BJP was turning from a lokshahi democracy to taanashahi dictatorship One canrsquot compromise with selfrespect But the nation is above all And Bihar is my strengthSo I felt whatever the situation the location must remain the same That was Patna City constituency from where I had to score a hattrickI joined the Congress Madam Sonia Gandhi and Rahul truly loved and supported me But there were twothree people making decisions who quietly gave the Patna City ticket away to someone elseMadam Mamata was affectionate enough to offer me Asansol even without telling me first She announced on Twitter now X and then called I scored a hattrick with a record margin TMC had never won from Asansol beforeMamata and TMC regularly use Bengali nonBengali binary as an election rhetoric How do you reconcile to that being a lsquoBihari babursquo yourselfIrsquom a Bihari babu Bengali babu and a Hindustani babu I can speak Bengali which I learnt in Patna which has the second largest Bengali population I didnrsquot think it would come handy in Asansol delivering speeches so many years later I got admitted to FTII from the Bengal centre where Mrinal Sen was the selector Surely you know Irsquove done quite a few Bengali filmsmdashGautam Ghosersquos Antarjali Jatra Samit Bhanjarsquos Jaban Shakti Samantarsquos MastanhellipAs I say now I have one wife and three homes Mumbai Patna and AsansolThe reason Ahluwalia was brought in last minute is because BJPrsquos original candidate Bhojpuri actor Pawan Singh got trolled and cancelled for having delivered lines in his films derogatory to Bengali women How fair is that Yoursquove been a Bollywood villain yourselfI agree unfair That way Amitabh Bachchan and I have murdered in movies Dilip Kumar was a dacoit in Ganga Jamuna but such a dignified manI havenrsquot met Pawan Singh but I hear hersquos a popular figure and a good artiste But then again everything is fair in politics love and war Take the case of the Karnataka sex scandal Of course PM Modi will get personally dragged inYoursquove been an accomplished actor politician forever Whatrsquos the difference between the two and how come so many actors are wannabe politiciansThere is great difference between the two Yes many actors get into politics and why not if theyrsquore committed If a doctor actor farmer can be a politician surely someone from the film industry too They also get into politics because glamour has limited power but power has unlimited glamour Many get tired and give up soon thoughI could be the longest serving MP and the only one from the film industry to have been a cabinet minister handling Health Family Welfare Shipping Despite that in all these years you will not find a single corruption ka daag stain against meItrsquos particularly insane how many actors TMC fields in the elections What do you make of thatYou will have to look at this glass halffull Everyone talks about 33 per cent reservation for women in Parliament but Mamata Didi hasnrsquot waited for any of that fielding the maximum number of women candidates across Encouraging many more women still Now they could belong to the film industry but with arts culture sports seeing is believing If theyrsquore not good someone else is brought inAlso Mamata Didi is herself an artiste who writes prolifically has written lyrics She understands art Otherwise the attitude of power towards the film industry is that theyrsquoll squeeze you and then say excuse me