Sunny Deol meets Amit Shah, may fight from Punjab

New Delhi: BJP chief Amit Shah met actor Sunny Deol in the national capital on Friday. The meeting set off political speculation on whether Deol is likely to be fielded from a seat in Punjab.  The meeting comes as the BJP is yet to announce candidates for the three seats in Punjab for the ongoing Lok Sabha election.

Mr Shah met the actor to convince him to contest from Amritsar, sources said. However, no announcement has been made so far.  “I heard about it (rumours about joining politics). I just met him (Amit Shah) and we took a photograph, that’s it,” Sunny Deol told a news channel.

The BJP, that has formed an alliance with Shiromani Akali Dal, is fighting three of the 13 parliamentary seats in Punjab: Amritsar, Gurdaspur and Hoshiarpur. Sunny Deol, 62, is best known for his action hero roles in films like Gadar: Ek Prem Katha, Himmat, Ghatak and Border.

For Amritsar, the BJP had also contemplated the names of actor Poonam Dhillon and Rajinder Mohan Singh Chhina. Poonam Dhillon was appointed as the vice-president of the BJP’s Mumbai unit last year. Gurdaspur seat is likely to go to actor and former lawmaker’s Vinod Khanna’s wife Kavita Khanna or his son, actor Akshaye Khanna.

Sunny Deol’s father, veteran actor Dharmendra, had a brief stint in politics about ten years ago, when he contested the 2004 national election from Rajasthan’s Bikaner on BJP ticket and won. Last week, the veteran actor campaigned for his wife, actor and BJP lawmaker Hema Malini, in Uttar Pradesh’s Mathura.

The legendary Bollywood couple addressed a rally for the Jat community where a massive crowd turned up. Punjab will vote in a single phase, on May 19.