Are Bollywood stars really the right choice to pocket the votes?
Will you vote on the basis which star is supporting which group. Is that teh right criteria????
Other parties bank on stars, but BSP only has Mayawati
By Sharat Pradhan Mar 22, 2007, 11:45 GMT
Lucknow, March 22 (IANS) The Congress has its Gandhi stars, the Samajwadi Party the Bachchan family and the BJP its Dharmendras and Hema Malinis, not to mention political bigwigs like L.K. Advani. But the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) is banking only on chief Mayawati to bring in the votes in the crucial Uttar Pradesh polls.
All parties are gearing up to bring in the biggest and the best campaigners as electioneering takes off in Uttar Pradesh for the seven-phased assembly elections from April 7. It is only the BSP that has nobody else but Mayawati to fall back on.
'We do not believe in the gimmick of roping in film-stars or any other high-profile persons for the campaign. Mayawatiji is competent and strong enough to meet the combined might of top leaders of the entire opposition,' BSP general secretary Satish Chandra Misra told IANS.
The 51-year-old Dalit leader, who has emerged as the undisputed inheritor of the late BSP founder Kanshi Ram's political legacy, kicks off her campaign March 24 from Auraiya, just next to arch adversary and Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav's home in Etawah.
Though she had carried out her party's campaign single-handedly in 2002 as well, because Kanshi Ram decided to focus attention in Punjab, this is the first time she undertakes the task after her political mentor's demise.
Her rivals -- the ruling Samajwadi Party, Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress -- are going quite the other way. They will have their national leaders and are roping in Bollywood stars to help them along the way.
Yet another attraction at poll rallies, particularly in rural constituencies, will be Mumbai's dance bar girls being hired in a big way by different political parties.
Mulayam's Samajwadi Party tops the star list with none other than Amitabh Bachchan likely to share the stage with him at several places. Poll strategists are in the process of working out a plan to add Abhishek Bachchan and fiancee Aishwarya Rai for the party's poll show.
MPs and former stars Jaya Bachchan and Jaya Prada are already making their presence felt, hitting the front pages Tuesday when they accompanied Mulayam to Etawah where he filed his nomination. They are likely to be with him throughout the campaign.
The party's well-connected general secretary Amar Singh is understood to be negotiating with several other Bollywood stars to add more glamour to the party. Prominent among these is Shilpa Shetty and playback singer Sonu Nigam.
The BJP is also giving final touches to a high profile poll campaign to be launched by former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and former chief minister Kalyan Singh from Kanpur next week.
Others to follow include former deputy prime minister L.K. Advani and national leaders like Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley and party president Raj Nath Singh, who proposes to camp in the state for the next two months.
It will also bank in on its own film star MPs Dharmendra, Hema Malini, Vinod Khanna, Shatrughan Sinha and TV actress Smriti Irani. Efforts are on to bring in the second generation, Vinod Khanna's son Akshay and Dharmendra's children Sunny and Esha Deol.
Not willing to lag behind, the Congress plans road shows with its MP Govinda and supporters like Rajesh Khanna. And the buzz is that the party is also trying to get Shah Rukh Khan to match the Bachchan's family appeal.
Of course, party chief Sonia Gandhi's children Rahul and Priyanka are the ultimate stars. They will be there with their mother, who will obviously be spinning across the vast state seeking people's support for the party that has been down in the dumps in the politically vital state.
Kumkum Bhagya
