New Delhi: Actor Sunny Deol was on Tuesday fielded by the BJP as its candidate from Gurdaspur Lok Sabha seat in Punjab hours after he joined the party. Sitting MP from Chandigarh Kirron Kher was also renominated.
The party has nominated Som Prakash as its candidate from Hoshiarpur in Punjab in place of Union minister Vijay Sampla.
With the announcement of these three candidates, the party has declared its nominees for 437 seats, the highest number of Lok Sabha constituencies it has contested so far.
Sunny Deol, 62, who has played the lead role in blockbusters such as Ghayal, Gadar and Border joined the BJP on Tuesday in the presence of defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman and railways minister Piyush Goyal.
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The development came days after he met BJP president Amit Shah in Pune.
“The way my father (film star Dharmendra) was attached with Atalji, today I have come to join Modiji. Whatever I can do for this family (BJP), I will do it… I won’t talk, I will show you through my work,” Deol said, while addressing the media at the BJP office here.
Deol is the second member of the family after his step mother Hema Malini, the BJP candidate renominated from Mathura, to be given a ticket by the party in this election. His father Dharmendra was BJP MP from Bikaner in 2004.
Deol will take on Punjab Congress chief Sunil Jakhar from Gurdaspur, which was in the past represented by the late actor Vinod Khanna from the BJP.
Welcoming Deol into the party, Sitharaman said,”The moment we got to know that he is coming to the party, I can only relate to the film Border he had made, post which the impact on the Indian audience of such a theme was really proven.”
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“The feeling of nationalism and patriotism, when so beautifully evoked through a film, can really touch the core of Indian citizen,” she said.
“Deol understands the pulse of people and “is inspired by the work done by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is serving the cause of the people, and keeping India’s glory high,” she said.addedHe is an artiste of eminence who make films beyond commercial considerations on the themes that are important for the country, Sitharaman said.
The party has announced candidates for 437 seats out of 545 so far. In 2014, it had contested 428 seats.