In 1992, Rajesh Khanna participated in the by-election on a Congress ticket, while Shatrughan Sinha was still a member of BJP (Bhartiya Janata Party). With over 100 candidates contesting, Rajesh Khanna defeated Shatrughan Sinha by more than 28,000 votes, sustaining his seat till 1996.
Shatrughan opened up to TOI, stating, “Rajesh was very upset when I contested against him in a by-election. Honestly, I didn’t want to, but couldn’t refuse LK Advani ji. I tried explaining this to Rajesh but he did not like it; we didn’t speak for quite a long time. However, we did start talking after many years.”
He also added that before he could apologise to Rajesh ji, it was too late, “I wanted to go and apologise to him when he was in the hospital and hug him, but sadly, he passed away before I could do that,”
In 2012, Rajesh passed away due to a liver ailment he was suffering from for a prolonged period of time.
Shatrughan left the BJP after being associated with the party for over two decades and joined Congress in 2019. He stated, “I saw democracy changing into dictatorship in the BJP… It has become a one-man show and two-man army,” he said at the time.
Shatrughan was the first Bollywood actor to have become a cabinet minister and had also won from the Patna Sahib constituency.
In 2020, Shatrughan’s son, Luv Sinha, participated in the Bihar assembly elections from the Bankipur seat. However, he lost to Nitin Nabin of the BJP.
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