| Home
Film stars took a backseat in Jharkhand elections
New Delhi News.Net
Thursday 17th December, 2009 (IANS)
This was one election where movie stars took a back seat compared to seasoned politicians. Political parties in Jharkhand felt that actors do not necessarily fetch votes.
As Jharkhand voted for the fifth and final round to elect a new assembly Friday, political activists said that film stars no doubt attract crowds but their presence is no guarantee for victory. In the Lok Sabha elections of April-May, all political parties took the help of film stars to win what was undoubtedly a tough electoral contest.
Actors who then campaigned for the Congress included Poonam Dhillon, Nagma, Kunika and Minissha Lamba. Hema Malini and Shatrughan Sinha were the prime attractions for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Serena Jaitely campaigned for the Jharkhand Vikas Morcha-Prajantantrik (JVM-P).
But the number of stars dropped drastically as the staggered assembly elections took place.
Only Nagma sought votes for the Congress, that too only for two of the five phases. Shatrughhan Sinha campaigned for the BJP, but BJP sources pointed out that he was there in the capacity of a BJP MP, not an actor.
The Jharkhand assembly battle witnessed scores of national level leaders campaigning all across the state.
Among these were the chief ministers of Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Maharashtra and Jammu and Kashmir.
Other leading political guns included Congress president Sonia Gandhi, BJP president Rajnath Singh, JD-U star Sharad Yadav, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) head Shibu Soren, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Lalu Prasad and Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) leader Ramvilas Paswan.
The others who toured Jharkhand were Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi, Digvijay Singh, Pranab Mukherjee, Ambika Soni, Jatin Prasad, Ajay Maken and Salman Khurseed.
The BJP leading lights who campaigned were Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley and M. Venkaiah Naidu.
'In assembly polls local issues dominate. This time candidates did not demand film stars. The local leaders were able to understand the issues and communicate with voters,' Shailesh Sinha, the BJP's Jharkhand unit general secretary, told IANS.
Hema Malini was missing in the assembly polls. She had campaigned in the Lok Sabha elections.
Said one BJP leader: 'Our party is focussing on basic issues concerning the people. Film stars cannot communicate the way our leaders can.'
The lone Congress star campaigner Nagma left Jharkhand after facing embarrassment when mediapersons quizzed her about prices of potatoes and other vegetables.
Nagma failed to answer the questions. In no time, she left Jharkhand, a state where more than half the population is classified as living 'Below Poverty Line' (BPL).
(Nityanand Shukla can be contacted at nityanand.s@ians.in)  Email this story to a friend
Comments on this story
seema
12-22-09, 06:51 AM |
Film stars took a backseat in Jharkhand elections
Ofcourse Hema Malini is not interested because she’s not elected for the 2nd time. This woman fools the Indian folk a lot. She’s very selfish,wants to climb higher and become important to well known people of India. She does this by her classical dance about Krishna and other gods because she knows that Indians are religous and superstitous so nobody lifts one finger at her even though she has two avtaars of which one is influenced by Meryl Streep and the other by goddess Laxmi. She’s so self centered that she doesn’t mind dimming her daughters light. She likes being wooed by her male costars, she even staggers them like a wild horse. At the age of 61 she’s still obsessed with handsome men like John Abraham, No wonder young guys don’t come near her daughters, who knows mom Hema might fall in love.
People wonder why she loves to show skin by the way she wears her saris. We know that she’s proud of her flat belly, but shouldn’t she pay more respect to Dharmendra and their grown up daughters?
Hema’s secrets have never revealed. Few know that the first man she slept with was Jeetendra because she thought that she was going to marry him. Her spiritual mentor,Surdas Prabhu, appears to her in the avtaar of Lord Shiva and has sex with her. Hema thinks she’s very important to god so she accepts this situation.This Surdaas has driven Hema and Dharmendra apart. Her friends from New Woman magazine persuade her to behave like a young girl much to her daughters embarrasment who are afraid to tell mom the truth. And last but not least, the media is afraid to confront her with certain questions because they think that maybe Lord Krishna may punish them as they consider Hema to be very
|
Have your say on this story
|
|
