Bollywood actress Madhuri Dixit is being considered by the BJP as a potential candidate from the Pune constituency for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, says an NDTV report. According to sources, fielding fresh candidates was a ploy by the BJP as new faces don’t elicit criticism from people.
A senior BJP functionary was quoted as saying – “These tactics were implemented by Narendra Modi in Gujarat when he became the Chief Minister for the first time. He changed all the candidates in local body elections and the party reaped benefits of that decision.”
“As fresh faces were introduced, there was nothing to criticise them with. It left the opposition shocked and the BJP won maximum seats and retained power,” he added. According to him, this was a tried and tested strategy that yielded results in Delhi during the 2017 civic body polls. Back then, The BJP had denied sitting councillors tickets.
BJP chief Amit Shah had met the 51-year-old actress at her residence earlier this year during his party’s ‘Sampark for Samarthan’ (Contact for Support) programme and briefed her on the achievements of the Narendra Modi government. A senior state BJP leader told PTI that the actress’s name was shortlisted for the Pune Lok Sabha seat.
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“The party is seriously considering giving candidature to Madhuri Dixit in the 2019 general elections. We think the Pune Lok Sabha constituency will be better for her,” he said.
“The party is in the process of finalising the list of probable candidates for several Lok Sabha seats and Dixit’s name has been shortlisted for the Pune Lok Sabha constituency…she is being seriously considered for it,” he added.
BJP won the Pune Lok Sabha seat from the Congress during the 2014 general elections when Anil Shirole won by a margin of over three lakh votes.
Madhuri Dixit was awarded the Padma Shri by the Indian government in 2008.