Lucknow: Poonam Sinha, wife of actor-turned-politician Shatrughan Sinha, filed her nomination papers from the Lucknow Lok Sabha seat on Thursday as a Samajwadi Party candidate.
She was accompanied by Samajwadi Party MP Dimple Yadav.
Poonam Sinha, who had joined the Samajwadi Party two days ago, will be pitted against Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh in Lucknow. She is the joint SP-BSP candidate.
Poonam Sinha later took out a roadshow in which her husband Shatrughan Singh and two sons Luv and Kush were also present.
Shatrughan Sinha’s presence at the road show triggered off a controversy. He had joined the Congress on April 6 while the roadshow was essentially a Samajwadi Party show.
“I am here not as a Congress leader but as a husband and surely I have the right to be by my wife’s side at this time,” he said. He also said that he would also campaign for his wife but not for any other non-Congress candidate.
Meanwhile, the Congress candidate from Lucknow, Acharya Pramod Krishna, also filed his nomination for the Lucknow Lok Sabha seat on Thursday.
Shatrughan presence reportedly irked some in his own party who asked why he was campaigning for a candidate from a rival party.
When asked about Shatrughan’s justification for his presence in the roadshow of his wife, Krishnam said he would want to see him campaign for Congress in Lucknow against Poonam. “He has fulfilled his duty as a husband. Now, he has to fulfill his duty to his party and must campaign for me against his wife,” he said.