Bollywood stars to feature in UP Assembly campaign

Lucknow, Mar 29 (UNI) The Samajwadi Party, the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress with the exception of Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party are lining up the tinsel world stars to campaign for them in the seven-phased April-May elections to the 403-seat Uttar Pradesh Assembly.

Some are trying on party basis while some candidates are vying for them on individual basis, the various party sources said.

The ruling Samajwadi Party has already launched a blitzkreig with party MPs Jaya Bachchan and Jaya Prada virtually camping in Bharthana, one of two seats in UP from where Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav is contesting this time-Gunnaur in Badaun district being the other. These two stars would campaign in other parts of the state as well, SP sources confirmed.

In fact, the TV advertisment of mega star Amitabh Bachchan in favour of SP had hit the scene months ago and was receiving a lot of attention. The kind of relations the Big 'B' maintains with the SP leaders particularly Mulayam Singh Yadav and Amar Singh and his wife Jaya Bachchan being a SP MP, he is likely to make his presence at a few places during the electioneering.

With Bollywood connections of Amar Singh not a secret, the SP could well take a lead in bringing stars during the electioneering.

Besides super star Shahrukh Khan, the Congress may rope in party MP and a popular star and party MP Govinda, Celina Jaitely,Nagma, Asrani, Poonam Dhillon, Zeenat Aman and a host of TV stars.

BJP is somewhat self-sufficient in roping in stars as many of them are already in the party some of them are even MPs. Such stars include Vinod Khanna, the party MP from Gurdaspur, Hema Malini, Rajya Sabha member, Dharmendra, MP from Bikaner while Shatrughan Sinha and 'Kahani Ghar Ghar Ki' star Smiriti Irani being active in the party. Of these , Dharmendra, however, refused to campaign in the state when he was here few days ago but declined to commit on his wife and dream girl of yesteryears Hema Malini.

The latest sensation Rakhi Sawant too was approached by various parties but she has declined saying ''politics is not my cup of tea.'' Former Prime Minister Vishwanath Pratap Singh-led Jan Morcha has only one star with it-Raj Babbar. He is not only the leader of the party but also a decent speaker with pleasing personality.

Babbar, a suspended SP MP from Agra, will undertake a hectic tour of the state during the electioneering.

BSP's leader Mayawati has never relied on the film fraternity and she would alomost be the lone crusader of her party with support from party's general secretary Satish Chandra Mishra who would be campaigning more to exploit caste equations.

Other smaller parties like Apna Dal and Janata Dal(U) will have to depend on the joint campaign with the BJP as these two parties are contesting in the alliance with the saffron party.

Similarly, Ajit Singh-led Rashtriya Lok Dal(RLD) has no stars tagged with it and the party president would himself be campaigning for his party candidates.

UNI