Published 15:48 IST, October 19th 2019
Maharashtra polls: Govinda campaigns for BJP candidate in Malkapur
As Maharashtra geared up for polls, Govinda campaigned for BJP's Chainsukh Madanlal Sancheti in Malkapur. Govinda had served as Congress Lok Sabha MP before.
- Election News
- 3 min read
The political battlefield for the Maharashtra Assembly elections is heating up, with only two days to go for the polls. All the political parties and candidates would seek to woo the voters with promises in the manifesto, and more importantly, be able to reach each and every corner of the area and to each voter to make them aware. This process gets much easier if there is a star at the rally. Chainsukh Madanlal Sancheti, a Bharatiya Janata Party candidate from Malkapur, not just got a star campaigner for his party, but also one that grabbed eyeballs because of the party his campaigner, Govinda, had previously represented in the Lok Sabha.
Several pictures and videos surfaced on social media of Govinda from a BJP rally in Malkapur on Saturday. Scores of people gathered in the area to catch a glimpse of the veteran actor as he joined Sancheti on top of the campaign vehicle as the bands played music. The Coolie No 1 star was dressed in white and had the tilak on his forehead. He was seen folding his hands, waving out to those looking from their windows and showing his trademark wide smile. What stood out, was Govinda, like the candidate he was rooting for, wore the BJP scarf on her neck.
For the unversed, Govinda represented the Congress party from Mumbai-North constituency in the Lok Sabha. He had won the elections in 2004 by beating Ram Naik of the BJP by close to 50,000 votes. His co-star of many films, Urmila Matondkar, stood for the Congress in the recently-held Lok Sabha elections from the same seat, but was beaten by BJP’s Gopal Shetty by a big margin.
Govinda had, however, quit politics in 2009. "Politics was never in our blood and in our family. I will never return to it," he was quoted as saying then.
Polls
The single-phase elections of the Maharashtra elections will be held on October 21. Maharashtra has 288 constituencies in all. The counting of results is scheduled for October 24. As per the opinion polls, the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance is expected to return to power with a big majority, with the Jan Ki Baat survey predicting 142 to 147 seats for BJP and 83 to 85 seats for Shiv Sena.
Updated 15:55 IST, October 19th 2019
