“Bitter truth”: Congress after BJP leader asks Sonu Sood to help migrants

PTI, Jun 3, 2020, 9:41 PM IST

Bhopal: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and former Madhya Pradesh minister Rajendra Shukla was criticised by the opposition after he asked actor Sonu Sood on Twitter to help migrant workers from his area who were stuck in Mumbai, Maharashtra.

Sood has won accolades for arranging transport for migrant workers who are unable to go back home amid the nationwide lockdown for coronavirus.

Shukla, the BJP MLA from Rewa, shared on Twitter a list of migrants from Rewa and Satna districts of Madhya Pradesh who are stuck in Mumbai.

“Your migrant brothers will be sent to you tomorrow, sir. if I ever come to MP, then offer me Poha.” the actor responded back in Hindi.

Shukla later said that 55 of 168 people stuck in Mumbai could return following his request to Sood.

However, social media users trolled Shukla, pointing out that the BJP is in power at the Centre and in Madhya Pradesh but its leader had to seek help from a Bollywood actor.

Opposition Congress also targeted Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.

“This tweet by Rajendra Shukla exposes the bitter truth of Madhya Pradesh. See Shivraj (Chouhan), former minister and presently BJP MLA from Rewa is unable to trust your government, then he has to take help from actor Sonu Sood for the migrant labourers trapped in Mumbai,” former MP Congress chief Arun Yadav tweeted.

Referring to the state government’s promise to bring back every migrant worker, state Congress spokesperson Narendra Saluja said that Shukla had been a minister for many years in the Shivraj Chouhan-led governments, so he knows the “reality” of the chief minister’s announcements.

“That is why he sought the help of actor Sonu Sood, not from Shivraj Chouan, to bring back the stranded workers in Mumbai,” he said.

Shukla said the Centre and the state government have brought lakhs of migrant workers back, but “Congressmen are hiding in their houses”.

Madhya Pradesh BJP spokesperson Rajneesh Agrawal said that about six lakh migrants have been brought back by the state government, in which Shukla also played a big role as a member of the BJP task force on the issue.