Patna, Jan. 5: BJP patriarch L.K. Advani will release BJP MP Shatrughan Sinha's biography, the title of which indicates the former actor's intent to get it all off his chest and, once again, subject his party to anxious moments.
Shatrughan had initially hoped to use the launch of Anything but Khamosh: The Shatrughan Sinha Biography (khamosh as in silence) to gather the phalanx of leaders who spoke out against the current BJP regime, headed by Narendra Modi and Amit Shah, from time to time.
He had invited Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, RJD chief Lalu Prasad and the BJP's margdarshak mandal, which includes Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi and Shanta Kumar. While JDU and RJD sources here said Nitish and Lalu had no plans to come "as of now", Joshi and Kumar, too, will not be around because they are away in Kanpur and Kangra, their Lok Sabha constituencies.
However, the BJP's Jharkhand leader, Yashwant Sinha, an honorary member of the veterans' club, confirmed he would attend. "Shatrughan and I are old friends, so there is no doubt I will be there," Sinha told The Telegraph.
BJP sources said no other central leader will be present, although in the past Shatrughan had counted Sushma Swaraj and Shahnawaz Hussain among his well-wishers and sympathisers.
But Kirti Azad, who has joined the BJP's increasing number of outliers, said he would be there at the launch. Azad, also a Bihar MP, stands suspended from the party for taking on Union finance minister Arun Jaitley, who he accused of "shielding" alleged wrongdoers when he had helmed the Delhi and District Cricket Association.
Tellingly, Shatrughan refused to invite Bihar BJP leaders like Sushil Kumar Modi, Nand Kishore Yadav and Mangal Pandey. Sushil said: "I have no information about any such function."
Nand Kishore, who is in Delhi right now, said even if he was invited the chances of attending a function like this were "rare".
The BJP's Bihar contingent was miffed with the Patna Sahib MP for traducing them in his tweets in the run-up to the Assembly polls. The biography reportedly alludes to his uneven ties with state leaders.
Shatrughan plans a second launch at Patna where he hopes Nitish and Lalu will show up. The BJP was in a state of near panic at the thought of two "dissidents", Advani and Shatrughan, appearing on a common dais to speak on a quasi-political work. "Advani ji is our senior, he is like a banyan tree who nourished and nurtured everyone of us in the party. If we are what we are today, it is because of him. He built the BJP," a party official said.
Initially, Advani's aides believed the BJP's media cell would organise coverage of the event to be held at Delhi's Claridges Hotel on Wednesday evening. But the media cell disclaimed any knowledge of the launch and refused to associate with it.
Senior film journalist and author Bharathi S. Pradhan, who has known Shatrughan for years, wrote the book. Congress MP Shashi Tharoor has penned the foreword.
Additional reporting by Radhika Ramaseshan
