In a big sigh of relief for the ‘worried’ saffron brigade, the election panel has agreed to have actor-turned-politician Sunny Deol’s screen name on the EVMs (electronic voting machines) instead of his real name — Ajay Singh Dharmendra Deol.
After finalising the list of contesting candidates for May 19 elections, the Election Commission has written approved BJP’s request to have “Sunny Deol” on the EVMs. The party had argued that the people know him by his screen name, and most of the people are not aware of his real name Ajay Singh Dharmendra Deol — the name by which he has filed his nomination papers.
Taking his first electoral plunge, the junior ‘Punjab da puttar” filed his nomination papers on April 29 to contest as the SAD-BJP combine candidate from Gurdaspur Lok Sabha seat by the name of ‘Ajay Singh Dharmendra Deol’, as he has been registered as the voter by the same name.
For the same, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had urged the poll panel to mention its candidate’s name as “Sunny Deol” instead of his real name.
Playing a minor role in Punjab politics with just one member in the Lok Sabha, and three in Vidhan Sabha, the BJP is eyeing to grab a bigger and better share by riding high on the Bollywood action hero Sunny Deol’s star power in the May 19 Lok Sabha elections in the state.
A senior BJP leader had contended that the people knew him as Sunny Deol. “They don’t know who is Ajay Singh. When people would come to vote for Sunny, they may get confused by not finding his name there. That is why we have requested the election commission to write Sunny Deol instead of his real name,” the leader added.
Moreover, Sunny’s real name has not been mentioned in the publicity material, and only his screen name, “Sunny Deol”, is being publicised.