It is a known fact that many Bollywood celebrities opt to enter into politics as soon as their reel reputations take a dive for the worse. While political parties eagerly invite these celebrities with the pretext of using their fan base to extract more votes, the common man feels these stars would add some much needed chutzpah and star dust to the otherwise bland and serious election campaigns. However, will this transition benefit the electorate or the celebrities themselves in any way? Let’s take a closer look to find out.
Last week, Milind Deora representing the Congress in the Mumbai South Constituency in the Lok Sabha was quoted as saying that actors and actresses usually join politics to get noticed.
However, Deora failed to realize that he has been using actor Salman Khan to get noticed as well for quite some time now.
Even the Aam Aadmi Party has roped in former Miss India and actress Gul Panang to contest in northern Chandigarh opposite actress Kiron Kher who will be representing the BJP in the same region.
The battle lines drawn between these actors and actresses indicate that India is about to witness the most glamorous elections of all time. However, the glamour quotient would not be able to justify an actor’s future in the political arena, as was witnessed by several movie stars turned politicians over the past few years.
Case in point: Comedy icon Govinda who chose to leave politics after being criticized for not meeting voters and not attending party meetings. Even Moon Moon Sen who is currently contesting the elections in favor of the Trinamul Congress seems to be more worried about her skin and diet regime rather than wooing the voters. Moon Moon Sen’s query on the time that would be allotted for her beauty regime while governing the Bankura constituency in West Bengal has left many bemused by the actor turned politician’s priorities.
However, not all actor turned politicians behave in the same manner as depicted above. In the midst of several decorative actor turned politicians is the ambitious Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, Jayalalitha who has been quietly positioning herself to become the possible prime ministerial candidate of the third party front that is touted to be the alternative to the Congress as well as BJP led governments.
A very famous starlet turned politician, Jayalalitha has carved a niche for herself in the political arena down South and has been elected as the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu three times over the years.
India is set to enter the elections this month with a whole horde of new starlets entering the country’s political arena. Whether they benefit the parties, they join or benefit from the campaigns themselves is not a question here.
What needs to be noticed is whether these starlets would be able to do much more than stand on podiums and show off their oratory and public recognition skills. For standing on the shores and swimming in deep waters are two different things altogether.
