Shotgun’s Wife Poonam Joins SP; To Contest From Lucknow

New Delhi: Shatrughan Sinha’s wife and actor Poonam Sinha on Tuesday joined the Samajwadi Party and will take on senior BJP leader and Union home minister Rajnath Singh from the high-profile Lucknow seat.

Poonam’s move comes against the backdrop of her husband recently joining the Congress. Shotgun, as Shatrughan is famously called, is contesting the from Patna Sahib against Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad.

“Poonam Sinha Ji will be the SP-BSP-RLD candidate from Lucknow. She will file nomination on April 18. We appeal to the Congress to not field their candidate from here, so that the BJP can be defeated,” SP leader Ravidas Mehrotra said.

According to political analysts, the decision to field Poonam as the joint Opposition candidate against Rajnath is seen as an attempt by the Opposition to keep the home minister confined to his constituency.

“There are four lakh Kayastha and 1.3 lakh Sindhi voters in Lucknow, apart from 3.5 lakh Muslims. This will give a major push to her candidature,” an SP leader was quoted by India Today as saying. Poonam is a Sindhi and Shatrughan a Kayastha.