Bollywood + Campaigning = Spicy UP polls

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

The ruling Samajwadi Party has already launched a blitzkrieg with party parliamentarians 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 is the other seat.

These two stars will campaign in other parts of the state as well, SP sources confirmed. In fact, the television advertisement of actor Amitabh Bachchan in favour of SP had hit the scene months ago and was receiving a lot of attention.

The kind of relations the Bachchan maintains with the SP leaders, particularly Mulayam Singh Yadav and Amar Singh, and his wife Jaya Bachchan being a SP parliamentarian, 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 actor Shahrukh Khan, the Congress may rope in party parliamentarian Govinda, Celina Jaitely, Nagma, Asrani, Poonam Dhillon, Zeenat Aman and a host of television stars.

BJP is somewhat self-sufficient in roping in stars as many of them are already in the party some of them are even parliamentarians. Such stars include Gurdaspur parliamentarian Vinod Khanna, Rajya Sabha member Hema Malini Bikaner parliamentarian Dharmendra, Shatrughan Sinha and Kahani Ghar Ghar Ki star Smiriti Irani.

Of these, Dharmendra, however, refused to campaign in the state when he was here few days ago.

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 in the form of Raj Babbar. He is not only the leader of the party but also a decent speaker with pleasing personality. 

Babbar, a suspended SP parliamentarian 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 almost 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 has no stars tagged with it and the party president will himself campaign for his party candidates.