Originally posted by: blyton
Like many people, I was not exactly rapturous about the engagement of the "Country's Hottest Couple". Setting aside my own fondness for Rani Mukherjee 😉, what I was feeling was that this was not exactly a labour of love, but a well thought out move by the Bachchan family to advance its prospects.
Consider this: Amitabh Bachchan has close links with the Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh. The two are inseparable at any function. Amitabh refers to Amar Singh and Mulayam Singh as his "brothers". Yet he denies having an political ambitions. Should we believe him?
Not me....for today I saw an advertisement for Samajwadi Party on a news channel, where Amitabh was passionately advocating the cause of the party. Jaya Bachchan's Rajya sabha seat is under fire on the Office of Profit issue. In effect, her political career doesn't look too roay. Amitabh has already burnt his fingers in politics once. Yet, they know too well that Bollywood can give you only so much influence over people. Real power comes from politics, murky or not.
Consider, also, that the SP is going through its worst phase today. Already slammed for the misadministration of UP and its callous handling of the Nithari case, it now faces Assembly elections in the most influential state in India. The Congress, BJP and the BSP are breathing down its neck.
10 years ago, when the Congress faced extinction, it played its master-stroke: it called Sonia Gandhi to its fold. To add to its appeal, it brought in the younger generation in the form of Rahul and Priyanka. It worked for the Congress. Its fortunes were reversed and it came back to power at the Centre. Today, in Amethi, the SP faces stiff resistance from Rahul Gandhi.
The best way to combat this is to bring in the "new generation" : in this case Abhishek and Ash. Together, they can provide the much-needed facelift to the party traditionally seen as the haunt of goons and landlords. The Bachchans know this all too well, and are probably game. Otherwise, why would the entire family be present at a recent political rally where Amar Singh referred to Ash as the "bahu of UP?"
The journalist from India Today shrewdly commented that maybe, in the coming elections, this bahu would be pitted against another "bahu" : Sonia Gandhi.
The stakes are high, but if SP and the Bachchans play their cards well, the gains will be unprecedented. Where would poor li'l Rani Mukherjee have figured in these massive calculations?😉