Mumbai: After the death last week of actor-turned-BJP MP Vinod Khanna, the Gurdaspur seat in Punjab needs another Bollywood name to represent it in Parliament.
The Bharatiya Janata Party is wondering who will be the right person to select. As a source from the BJP pointed out, "It is not a Rajya Sabha ticket. Whoever stands must be able to win and that too after the Punjab Assembly election did not really go in BJP's favour."
No political heavyweight of the party from Delhi was in Mumbai for Khanna's prayer meet on Wednesday.
Among the names being tossed around for Khanna's replacement is that of Akshay Kumar. "He has a clean image and has been doing a lot of patriotic movies in the recent past. He is the new age Mr Bharat," was the contention of the leader who proposed Akshay's name.
Rishi Kapoor is another name being considered, but he "talks too much on Twitter, though he will be good for the masses. Besides, there has been no one from the Kapoor family in politics and it is high time someone does," according to one viewpoint.
Raveena Tandon, Sonu Nigam and Sunny Deol are also being discussed, but the BJP does not just want a crowd puller. They want someone who can win.
"Sonu's recent statement, especially the way it was expressed, has not gone down well. The BJP is looking at a secular face from Bollywood because there are a lot of Muslims in Bollywood as well, and hence the representation should be right. Raveena was a great suggestion from the core team, but we want someone who can pull off a victory," says the BJP source.
Sunny Deol's name is being considered because his father Dharmendra won from Rajasthan and Sunny's stepmother Hema Malini won from Mathura.
With Akshay being busy with his films and collecting the National Award on Wednesday, it looks like Rishi could be the front runner...or maybe the party could go for another name.
Anupamaa
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