Bypoll results: Shatrughan Sinha for 'introspection' for poll reverses

Patna, Sep 16: With BJP suffering reverses in Assembly by-polls, actor-politician Shatrughan Sinha on Tuesday called for "introspection" of discouraging results within 100 days of spectacular victory in the Lok Sabha elections, and referred to the absence of veterans like L K Advani.

"We need to seriously introspect why we have failed (in by-polls in various parts of country) within 100 days of stupendous victory in national election," Sinha told reporters, reacting to results of bypolls today.

"How it happened? ...the poor results in the by-polls have certainly put us in anxiety," Sinha, second term BJP Lok Sabha member from Patna Saheb seat, said.

Sinha while mentioning other reasons, pointed to the absence of veteran leaders like L K Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Shanta Kumar, Yashwant Sinha, C P Thakur and B C Khanduri dropped from Parliamentary board, and not included in Cabinet because of the age bar of 75, for the poor showing.

"It seems we are paying for the absence of these veteran leaders from the poll scene," Sinha popularly known as "Bihari Babu" said. He disagreed with the age bar of 75 years and urged the party leadership to "relook" at the decision.

"A person generally enters into active politics at the age of 40-50 years and takes at least 10 years to mature... excluding people of 75 and above age and, including only youth, not much experienced in the team, does not look a good idea," Sinha said.

The BJP leader, who served as Union Minister in Atal Bihari Vajpayee's NDA cabinet, has on many occasions called Advani his "political guru".

PTI