Actor-turned-politician Sunny Deol, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s candidate for the Gurdaspur parliamentary seat, met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi yesterday.
Later Modi shared a photograph of him with Deol and tweeted: “What struck me about Sunny Deol is his humility and deep passion for a better India. Happy to have met him today. We are all rooting for his victory in Gurdaspur.”
Deol, the son of legendary actor Dharmendra, will take on Punjab Congress chief Sunil Jakhar in Gurdaspur, which was in the past represented by late Vinod Khanna of the BJP.
For some time, there was speculation that the BJP may field his widow Kavita Khanna or son Akshaye Khanna from there.
Kavita on Saturday said she would support the BJP though she has made her protest clear on not being given a BJP ticket.
Deol joined the BJP last week, days after he met party chief Amit Shah in Pune. In his speech after being formally inducted to the party, he had said, “Like my father joined Atal Bihari Vajpayee, I have decided to join Prime Minister Narendra Modi. I want PM Modi for the next five years.”
The 62-year-old actor is the third member from the Deol family to join politics. His father Dharmendra had a brief tryst with politics in 2004, when he contested national elections for the BJP from Bikaner, Rajasthan and won. His stepmother Hema Malini is contesting elections from Uttar Pradesh’s Mathura.
An actor with a huge fan base, Sunny Deol is known for his roles in films like ‘Border’, ‘Gadar’, ‘Ghayal’, ‘Damini’ and others. His dialogues like “dhai kilo ka haath.. “ and “tareek pe tareek..” have resonated with people across years.