The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday trained guns on the Trinamool Congress (TMC) for nominating veteran actor Shatrughan Sinha as its candidate from Asansol in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

“Meet Shatrughan Sinha, TMC’s candidate from Asansol. TMC rank is full of rapists, both in real (likes of Shahjahan Sheikh) and reel life,” BJP IT cell head Amit Malviya said in a post on X while sharing an old clip from Sinha’s film.

“Surprised Mamata Banerjee didn’t ask Shatrughan Sinha to join her on the eve of International Women’s Day for the sham women empowerment march,” Malviya added.

Also Read: BJP Asansol candidate Pawan Singh withdraws from Lok Sabha race amid controversy

Joining the criticism, BJP state secretary Priyanka Tibrewal hit out the TMC’s choice of candidates, drawing parallels between what she termed as “real and reel-life heroes” of the party.

Tibrewal said, “Look at the similarity between the real and reel life heroes of Trinamool. According to Trinamool, real-life heroes are people like Shahjahan- who raped women in Sandeshkhali and no wonder their reel-life heroes are people like Shatrughan Sinha who rapes women in the movies.”

“TMC’s list when it has come out most of them are tainted. And I say so. Why? Because cases are pending against them. They have given tickets to somebody like Mahua Moitra who was expelled from the parliament. No wonder we’ll see similar results in the upcoming years,” she added.

Also Read: Trinamool announces 42 names for Lok Sabha 2024 election, Mahua Moitra, Yusuf Pathan on list

Earlier this month, Bhojpuri actor-singer Pawan Singh withdrew his name as BJP candidate for the Lok Sabha poll contest from the Asansol seat. In a post on X, Singh thanked the BJP leadership for his candidature but added that he will not be able to contest from Asansol “due to some reason”.

Though he did not specify the reason for his decision, his candidature had drawn criticism from the TMC, which alleged that many of his songs were crude and depicted women, including those from the state, in a vulgar way.

Shatrughan Sinha termed the development as an internal affair of the BJP.

The veteran actor said, “I don’t know him (Singh) personally very well. But heard he is a singer, an artist and some of my acquaintances know him.”