election. Though as a Congress candidate Khanna had defeated Sinha by 25000 margin of votes, Khanna was disappointed at Sinha for standing against him in the elections. Sinha was selected by Rediff as one of the most unconventional actors in Hindi cinema (the others being Ajay Devgan, Amitabh Bachchan, Irrfan Khan, Rajesh Khanna, Rajinikanth, Shahrukh Khan and Sunil Shetty). In 2008, he became a judge on The Great Indian Laughter Challenge show, season 4 on STAR One TV. On 3 October 2009, Sinha appeared on Sony Entertainment Television Asia's show Dus Ka Dum season 2 as host for a special episode. He is currently hosting the Bhojpuri version of the popular game show Kaun Banega Crorepati on Mahuaa channel. He portrayed Chief Minister N.T. Rama Rao in Ram Gopal Varma's Rakta Charitra. Political career Sinha entered politics by contesting in a by-election opposite Rajesh Khanna. He quoted in an interview that his biggest regret in his life was contesting election against his friend Khanna. Khanna won the elections by beating Sinha by 25,000 votes; however, he was hurt and never spoke to Sinha thereafter. Sinha did try to rebuild his friendship with Khanna; however, that never happened until Khanna's death in 2012. He won the Patna Sahib Lok Sabha constituency in Bihar during the 2009 Indian general elections. He defeated another cinema celebrity, Shekhar Suman. Out of a total of 552,293 votes polled, Sinha received 316,549 votes. He won the seat in the subsequent 2014 Indian general elections, as well. In 2014, he received 485,905 from the 813,411 total votes polled. Sinha became a cabinet minister in the Third Vajpayee ministry from the 13th Lok Sabha, holding two portfolios, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (January 2003 – May 2004), and the Department of Shipping (August 2004). As of May 2006, he was appointed as the head of the BJP Culture and Arts Department. On 6 April 2019, Sinha became a member of the Indian National Congress in presence of Congress general secretary K. C. Venugopal and Randeep Surjewala. Sinha became a member of the Indian National Congress Party, having joined them after he was not given a seat for the 2019 Indian general elections by the Bharatiya Janata Party. In March 2022, Sinha joined All India Trinamool Congress to contest in the By-election for the Asansol Lok Sabha constituency. On 16 April 2022, Sinha won by defeating Bharatiya