‘Family with you’: Shatrughan Sinha, sons join Poonam on Lucknow roadshow

A sea of red broken only by patches of white was the sight in Lucknow as the newly inducted Samajwadi Party member Poonam Sinha undertook a road show ahead of filing her nomination papers at the collector’s office in Lucknow on Thursday.

Poonam Sinha, who is Congress leader Shatrughan Sinha’s wife, is contesting the Lok Sabha elections from Lucknow against Union home minister and senior BJP leader Rajnath Singh. Poonam joined the Samajwadi Party on Tuesday in the presence of Dimple Yadav, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav’s wife. Poonam Sinha’s candidature from Lucknow was announced by Akhilesh Yadav a day later, on Wednesday.

Shatrughan Sinha had earlier said that he would campaign for his wife, but not for any other non-Congress leader. As Poonam Sinha goes up against veteran BJP leader Rajnath Singh, Congress’s candidate from Lucknow Acharya Pramod Krishnan has protested against Shatrughan campaigning for Poonam Sinha.

Poonam Sinha’s road show began from the party office in Lucknow on Akhilesh Yadav’s ‘Kaam bolta hai rath’. Accompanying her were Shatrughan Sinha and Dimple Yadav.

All three of them were raised via a hydraulic lift to the roof of the rath that the Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav had got made especially for the 2017 assembly elections. Known as the “Kaam Bolta Hai Rath”, a throwback to the Samajwadi Party’s slogan of “kaam bolta hai (My work speaks for itself)”, it has been taken out every time the Yadav family members have gone to file their nomination papers.

The procession also turned into a show of strength for the Samajwadi Party as all that anyone could see either in front or behind the rath were people wearing the Samajwadi Party’s trademark red caps.

While Poonam Sinha was dressed in a light green, embroidered saree, Dimple Yadav wore a dark blue saree, with Shatrughan Sinha accompanying them in an off-white kurta pyjama.

Addressing the crowds from the roof of the bus during the road show, Shatrughan Sinha said, “Our twin sons too are here. The issue is of the family, the issue is the mahagathbandhan (SP-BSP-RLD alliance), the issue is of mahaparivartan (major change), the issue is of Samajwadi Party, the issue is of Bahujan Samaj Party; the issue is of Lucknow’s development, the issue is of UP’s development; and above all the issue is of restoring the country’s lost glory. In the fight against injustice, we are with you. Our family is with you.”

Shatrughan Sinha, an outspoken critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah, had opted to leave the BJP after he was dropped as the party’s candidate from Patna Sahib. The BJP instead opted to field Union law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad from the constituency. Shatrughan Sinha formally joined the Congress on April 6 in the presence of the Congress president Rahul Gandhi. He has been fielded from Patna Sahib as the Congress’s candidate against Ravi Shankar Prasad.