Poonam Sinha, the wife of veteran actor turned politician Shatrughan Sinha, joined the Samajwadi Party today. Last week, Shatrughan Sinha had joined the Congress after the BJP didn’t give him a ticket for this Lok Sabha elections. MP from Patna Sahib Mr. Sinha and is now contesting there on a Congress ticket.
आज लखनऊ में सांसद श्रीमती डिम्पल यादव जी की उपस्थिति में श्रीमती पूनम सिन्हा जी ने समाजवादी पार्टी की सदस्यता ग्रहण की। pic.twitter.com/AdjeuaYBc3
— Samajwadi Party (@samajwadiparty) April 16, 2019
Poonam Sinha was welcomed into the party by Dimple Yadav, the wife of Samajwadi chief Akhilesh Yadav, with just two more days before nominations close for Lucknow. Poonam Singha is likely to contest from Uttar Pradesh’s Lucknow.
Poonam Sinha, 69, is a former model and actor debuting in politics, unlike her husband, a two-time union minister.
A strategy to confine Rajnath?
The Lucknow parliamentary seat is considered to be a BJP bastion and has been its stronghold since the Atal Bihari Vajpayee era. After Vajpayee, this seat was won by Lalji Tandon and then by Rajnath Singh in 2014.
It had been speculated for long that the Gathbandhan or alliance of the Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party and Rashtriya Lok Dal in Uttar Pradesh would go for Poonam Sinha as their candidate against Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh of the BJP. Interestingly, Congress is not giving hand to the SP-BSP-RLD alliance this time.
The Congress is unlikely to field anyone in the seat with its high profile recruit’s wife in the race. Sources say any decision to field Poonam Sinha may be part of a strategy to confine Rajnath Singh to a seat where he has always breezed to victory. Hence, It is being speculated that after Poonam Sinha’s candidature, the Congress party may extend the hand.
