Battle Bollywood may soon hit UP polls

Will there be a “star war” in the crucial electoral battle for the Uttar Pradesh Assembly The Congress is relying on Bollywood to campaign for it in the upcoming polls after making actor Raj Babbar the state Congress chief. The decision was made with a calculation that Mr Babbar is above “castes” and can pull crowd from across the state at a time when the ruling Samajwadi Party and the BSP are asking for votes in the name of caste and social justice, while the BJP will go back to playing the Hindutva card.

The Congress’ campaign managers, who know the strength and weaknesses of Mr Babbar — who lacks the caste appeal of Mulayam Singh Yadav or Mayawati, is not a firebrand orator, doesn’t have a hardline image or great organising skills — know that he can pull crowds across the state because he is a film star and lacks a caste label.

The party feels that the caste equations will be taken care of by Sheila Dikshit, the chief ministerial candidate, Sanjay Sinh, the chairperson of the campaign committee and others like Pramod Tiwari, R.P.N. Singh, Imran Masood, P.L. Punia, Sriprakash Jaiswal and Jitin Prasada.

In such a situation, Mr Babbar will have to bring Bollywood stars to his aid and convince the likes of Shah Rukh Khan and Aamir Khan to take a clear stand and campaign for India’s “grand old party”.

If the Congress plays the Bollywood card against the Lohiyaists, Mandalites and the aggressive Hindutva brigade, then the BJP will not lag behind. This is because it has no dearth of “stars”. While Hema Malini, Kirron Kher, Paresh Rawal, Vinod Khanna and Shatrughan Sinha are its sitting MPs, Anupam Kher has openly identified with the BJP.

It will be interesting to see whether Salman Khan and Amitabh Bachchan, who have moved closer to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, can campaign for his party. Earlier, Amitabh Bachchan was close to the Samajwadi Party and, before that, to the Congress party and had won the Lok Sabha election from Allahabad in 1984.