Sunny Deol is not the first to join BJP in recent days. Here is a consolidated list of leaders who either jumped the ship or simply walked directly to the saffron side.
New Delhi: The latest to join the BJP bandwagon is movie star Sunny Deol of 'dhai kilo ha hath' fame. A cine star who is mostly associated with hyper-nationalistic movies like Border or Gadar, Ek Prem Katha gels pretty well with the nationalistic narrative that BJP is banking on so heavily this election.
Soon after joining, Deol said, "My father joined Atal Ji (Atal Bihari Vajpayee) and I have joined Modiji (Narendra Modi)". Coming from a family that has strong BJP association, Deol's joining was long anticipated.
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Earlier he met BJP president Amit Shah but refused to attribute motive behind it. But on Tuesday defense minister Nirmala Sitharaman and commerce minister Piyush Goyal welcomed him at BJP headquarters.
Deol's father Dharmendra was a member of parliament from BJP and his stepmother Hema Malini has fought from Mathura on BJP ticket this Lok Sabha election. And now Deol is tipped to be fighting from Gurdaspur, a seat previously held by late BJP MP Vinod Khanna. Following his death, the seat had gone Congress' Sunil Jhakkar. BJP hopes to win it back riding on Deol's popularity.
At a time when Prime Minister Narendra Modi has stressed on the Balakot strike over and over again during his electoral speeches, Sunny Deol's 'Hindusthan Zindabad tha, Zindabad hai aur zindabad rahega' image will only help the BJP consolidate its core constituency.
But Sunny Deol is not the first to join BJP in the recent days. Here is a consolidated list of leaders who either jumped the ship or simply walked directly to the saffron side.
1. Tom Vadakkan (Congress, Sonia's aide)
2. Jawed Habib (Hair Stylist)
3. Jaya Prada (Actress, Samajwadi Party)
4. Gautam Gambhir (Cricketer)
5. Krishna Kumar (Congress)
6. Arjun Singh (Trinomool)
7. Ratna Prabha (IAS)
8. Dr Sujay Vikhe-Patil (Congress)
9. Nisith Pramanik (Trinomool)
10. Prakash Mishra (CRPF)
11. Ranjitsinh Mohite Patil (Nationalist Congress Party)
12. Chaudhary Virendra Singh (Samajwadi Party)
13. Isha Koppikar (Actress)
14. Girinath Singh (Rashtriya Janata Dal)
15. Harinder Singh Khalsa (AAP)
16. Pragya Thakur (Religious Leader)
17. Dr Umesh Jadhav (Congress)
18. Baijayant Panda (Biju Janata Dal)
19. Major Dr Surendra Poonia (Army)
20. Aparajita Sarangi (IAS)
21. Sarath Chand (Vice Chief of Army Staff)
22. Bharati Ghosh (IPS)
23. Sham Lal Sharma (Congress)
24. Kunwarji Halpati (ex BJP)
25. Moushumi Chatterjee (Actress)
The list is quite comprehensive. All of them have joined the BJP only to bolster its case in the 2019 general election.
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