Bollywood action star and angry man Sunny Deol is set to a take on a new role of politician, only this time it's not for the reel but for real.
The 62-year-old filed his nomination papers as a Shiromani Akali Dal-Bharatiya Janata Party (SAD-BJP) combined candidate from the prestigious Gurdaspur seat in the north Indian state of Punjab on Monday.
He then went on to address his first political rally in his constituency, where a 5000-strong crowd had gathered to see the star.
And Mr Deol did not disappoint the crowd, regaling a mesmerised audience with memorable dialogues from his blockbuster films, promising them in chaste Punjabi that if voted to power, he would “serve them” and “not go anywhere else.”
“Look, I do not know much about politics but I am a patriot,” Mr Deol said.
“I have come here to connect with you because I want our Punjab and our country to scale new heights.”
Sunny Deol is the eldest son of yesteryear superstar Dharmendra, who enjoys a cult following in Punjab, and just like his father, Deol is a native of Sahnewal village in Ludhiana district, not far away from Gurdaspur.
While addressing the rally, he did not shy away from capitalising on his Punjabi connection to strike an emotional chord with the people.
He told the crowd that when he was offered the Gurdaspur ticket, his father Dharmender said, “Sunny, you should accept the opportunity for the sake of your love for Punjab.”
Mr Deol is, in fact, the third member of the Deol clan to have dabbled in politics, after father Dharmendra who won the Lok Sabha seat from Bikaner in Rajasthan and stepmother Hema Malini who is seeking re-election from Mathura in Uttar Pradesh.
This isn’t the first time that BJP has relied on star power in the border constituency of Gurdaspur.
It was earlier represented by another actor-turned-politician Vinod Khanna who won the seat four times. However, BJP lost the seat to Congress’ Sunil Kumar Jakhar in 2017 by-election, necessitated by Khanna’s death in April last year.
Now riding on star power once more, the party is hopeful of winning the seat back in an electoral battle that will not be an easy one for debutant Deol, especially when against a seasoned politician such as Jakhar who, unlike Deol, is well-versed with Punjab politics and local issues.
