The general public’s fascination with celebrities is apparent in Chandigarh’s election arena. Out of 17 candidates in the poll fray from the City Beautiful, two celebrity candidates –Gul Panag who is contesting from Aam Aadmi Party and BJP’s candidate actress Kirron Kher, have emerged as a crowd-pullers in the city.
Putting their heart and soul to win the ballot tussle, the two dimple beauties are holding public meetings, Padayatra, roadshows, Nukkad meetings throughout the day to garner the support of city’s voters. Though these Bollywood beauties have forayed into the politics and are making their electoral debut in lok Sabha polls, their “star” status remains undiminished,
During their election campaigns, the two Bollywood celebrities are attracting huge public attention. These actors turned politicians are signing autographs, posing for pictures, and shaking hands with the residents during their campaign trail everyday.
The residents in rural as well as urban parts of Chandigarh gather in large numbers to have a glimpse of these celebrity candidates. During their Padayatras (campaign on foot), the onlookers keep cheering their “star” candidates, with many onlookers even running towards them to shake hand and ensure their support.
After the announcement of their candidature from city’s lone lok Sabha seat, the two beauties have been going extra mile to woo the voters ahead of polling day scheduled on April 10 in Chandigarh.
On getting people’s support, AAP’s candidate Gul Panag says, “The moment I enter a market and any other place, people walk upto me and extend their support. The common man (Aam Aadmi) connects with me when I walk through streets and markets for campaigning.”
On the other hand, BJP’s candidate Kirron Kher gives all the credit to “Modi wave” for managing to gather large crowds during her campaigns. She says, “The large gatherings at meetings and other campaigning functions shows people’s huge support towards BJP and party’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi.” Even as the two beauties have become crowd pullers, it remains to be seen if the crowd at their gatherings translates into votes or not.
The 33 years old Panag became AAP’s candidate when another celebrity Savita Bhatti withdrew her candidature while in BJP, the infighting between three senior leaders paved way for the 61 years old Kirron to become party’s candidate from Chandigarh.
Stepping into the shoes of an Aam Aadmi (common man), Panag has been traveling in public transport, driving bikes, motorcycles on the streets of Chandigarh seeking support of the general public. On the other hand, Kirron has been addressing public meetings, utilising social networking websites to reach out to the city denizens.
Both have Facebook pages and Twitter account in an endeavour to garner voters support in the elections. The Bollywood actors, Kher and Panag have also been taking digs at each other on Twitter. Interestingly, these two “stars” have a lot in common. Both of them stuck to politics after initial hiccups as they faced protest from their respective parties after their candidature was announced
Both are daughters are former army personnels and also shares the tag of “parachute candidates” and “outsiders” in Chandigarh’s election arena. Having army background and belonging to Sikh families, the two “charmers” are expected to get support of Sikh voters and army personnels. Panag and Kher are likely to give a tough ballot fight to Congress candidate and four time MP Pawan Kumar Bansal in the ensuing lok Sabha polls.
Notably, a day before AAP's chief Arvind Kejriwal held a five-hour long roadshow in Chandigarh to campaign for Panag while Narendra Modi addressed ‘Bharat Vijay Rally’ here on March 29 seeking support for party’s candidate Kher in the ensuing polls.