Shatrughan Sinha's Biggest Regret Involves Co-Star Rajesh Khanna

New Delhi: Shatrughan Sinha, actor turned BJP lawmaker, has promised that his biography releasing today, will be "anything but khamosh (silent)," borrowing from a drawl that made him famous in Bollywood films. That, in fact, is the title of the book.

The Patna lawmaker has tweeted today:
In the book, Mr Sinha says contesting elections in 1991 against fellow Bollywood star Rajesh Khanna in Delhi is his biggest regret. He says he apologised to Mr Khanna, who died three years ago.

"Under no circumstances should I have started my active political career with a by-election. But I couldn't say no to (LK) Advani ji, who was my guide, guru and ultimate leader," Mr Sinha has said.

Mr Advani, who had contested and won the 1991 elections from both Gandhinagar and New Delhi, had chosen to keep the Gujarat seat. In the by-election for the Delhi seat, the BJP fielded Mr Sinha against Rajesh Khanna of the Congress who won.

"When I lost that election, it was one of my rare moments of dejection," Shatrughan Sinha has said in the new book. "It was the one time I really cried. I also felt very let down because Advani ji had not come even for one day to campaign for me."

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In later years, Mr Sinha served as union minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, in which Mr Advani was deputy PM. In his book, however, he has recalled being sidelined in his early days in politics.

The biography, Mr Sinha tweeted today, "is a most honest and uninhibited account of my experiences thru life."

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The BJP will brace for this next edition of Shotgun Sinha, unfiltered. In recent tweets and public comments he has embarrassed the party, the latest being his defence of fellow Bihar MP Kirti Azad who has been suspended by the BJP for taking on Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. Mr Sinha decsribed Mr Azad as a "hero."

There has been buzz for some time that the BJP will take disciplinary action against Mr Sinha for his frequent rebellion and refusal to toe the party line, but that is yet to happen.