by Harish Gupta, National Editor, Lokmat Group
Special report
BJP welcomes Celebrities, But with a rider
Film Stars, Cricketers seeking tickets
Harish Gupta
New Delhi, March 13
BJP high command is not very enthused towards the idea of fielding a large number of celebrities from cricket, cinema, art etc in the ensuing Lok Sabha polls.
Contrary to reports appearing in a section of the media that BJP is contemplating to field former cricketers Virendrer Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Sunny Deol and others, the BJP won't like to field a celebrity merely because of a name.
A member of BJP parliamentary board said on the condition of anonymity, “We are not averse to induct talent from these fields. We are talking to couple of them who have shown interest. But our experience has been that these celebrities become a more of a liability than asset.”
Except for Hema Malini and Shatrughan Sinha hardly anyone stayed and worked sincerely for the party. Lately, even Sinha chose to become a rebel after serving the party for 28 long years.
Secondly, after the exit of celebrities, Kirti Azad, Sinha and Navjot Singh Sidhu, the BJP leadership is cautious in picking such faces on a large scale. Instead of inducting such celebrities from party's strong states, the BJP would like to these celebrities belonging to Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Odisha, West Bengal and North Eastern states. The BJP wants to expand in these states and inducted Suresh Babu, Mary Kom into Rajya Sabha. The leadership is not very enthused in bringing in such stars in states where it has a formidable presence like Delhi, Bihar, UP, Gujrat, etc. Of course, the party brought in Paresh Rawal (Gujrat) and Rajya Vardhan Rathore (Rajasthan) in 2014.
Gambhir and Virender Sehwag have been keen to contest but they didn't get involved in the political or social work. The BJP wanted film star Akshay Kumar to join. But he will take his own time. Akshay Khanna wants to contest Gurdaspur seat which was represented by his late father. , Mohanlal and Sunney Deol are keen. But last word on them is yet to written. The names of Madhuri Dixit and Mohan Lal are being mentioned from Mumbai/Pune and Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha constituencies respectively.
In June last year, BJP chief Amit Shah had met the actor at her residence in Mumbai and Kapil Dev during his party's 'Sampark for Samarthan' (Contact for Support) program and briefed them on the achievements of the Narendra Modi government.
Therefore, a fine balance is required. But Gambhir won't be fielded from New Delhi, a seat held by Meenakshi Lekhi who is groomed to play more important role.
Ends
