NEWS
VIEWS
INTERVIEWS
CAMPAIGN TRAIL
ISSUES '98
MANIFESTOS
OVERHEARD
POLLING BOOTH
INDIA SPEAKS!
CHAT

Starry Days

Some glitter and a bit of glamour won't do no political party any harm, will it?

Nope it won't -- in fact, it might do just the opposite. And so we have political parties in Delhi busy roping in cine and sports stars to campaign for the February 16 poll.

The Bharatiya Janata Party was the first on the scene. It roped in not one, not two, but three film personalities -- Vinod Khanna who is the party nominee from Punjab's Gurdaspur, Rajya Sabha member Shatrughan Sinha, and Dara Singh.

Besides the threesome, the party also has former hockey players Ajit Pal Singh, under whose leadership the country won the 1975 World Cup, and Aslam Sher Khan to sing praises to Hindutva.

The Congress has countered the BJP attempt by getting Sunil Dutt, the former party MP from Bombay, to campaign for it in Delhi.

The Samajwadi Party, too, has caught on to the game, fielding Yunus Parvez, a character actor with hundreds of movies to his credit, in the East Delhi constituency.

The stars, on an average, address 5 to 10 public meetings a day and have even undertaken padyatras. Their presence has certainly made a difference in terms of attendance at meetings, which are seeing quite a few youthful faces.

Dutt addressed meetings in South Delhi, Karol Bagh, Delhi Sadar, Chandni Chowk, East Delhi and New Delhi. He expressed the need 'for greater participation of the youth in the electoral process to give the country a new direction.'

Khanna and Dara Singh undertook padyatras with the party candidates in Delhi Sadar, Chandni Chowk, East Delhi, South Delhi, Karol Bagh and Outer Delhi.

During his campaign, Sinha lambasted the Congress and the United Front for plunging the country into instability. He called upon the youth to vote for the BJP to give the country an able leader like Atal Bihari Vajpayee. In the one day he campaigned in Delhi, Sinha participated in a series of meetings organised in various assembly segments.

Ajit Pal Singh and Khan, who joined the BJP recently, have often shared the dais with BJP nominees.

Parvez, meanwhile, has been undertaking door-to-door campaigns, besides padyatras and public meetings.

UNI