From the glitz and glamour of Bollywood to the heat and dust of elections. Actors Gul Panag and Kirron Kher are trying to shun their celebrity tag to claim another -- of being “Chandigarh’s daughter”.
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In contrast to her on-screen presence, the glamour quotient is missing in the attire and campaign style of Panag. Dressed in a plain salwar-kameez and the Aam Aadmi Party cap, her poll campaign is high on symbolism.
On Wednesday, she started by an early morning visit to Khatkar Kalan in Nawanshahr district, the birthplace of martyr Bhagat Singh, and later held a road show at Maloya village after a door-to-door campaign in its market area. Though some young volunteers follow the former Miss India wearing AAP caps, her small cavalcade comprises mainly family and friends besides a few AAP workers and women volunteers.
Riding an SUV driven by her cousin, she walks the streets of the village addressing middleaged women as Bhabhiji and elderly ones as Mataji, asking them to sweep out corruption by pressing on the AAP button. To the men, she smiles and appeals with folded hands: “Jinhone is desh ko barbad kiya, unhe dubara is desh ki zimedari mat sompiye (Do not pass the reins of this country to those who destroyed it).
Accompanying her are her poll manager, Simran, a cousin who has flown from Mumbai, and her aunt, who lament there is little money to campaign. Her husband is helping manage the party office. “She called her family and friends after winning the nomination and we are all here leaving our children and jobs,” says Simran.
But Panag claims elections are fought by passion, not funds. “We don’t have resources and PR cells like big parties but our workers are dedicated. All I have is my two feet and I can’t rest till the elections,” she says.
On her vision for Chandigarh, she points to the streets of the village. “Does it look a part of posh Chandigarh? I have a problem with the term inclusive growth. It means no equal opportunity for education, jobs and basic facilities. Chandigarh’s infrastructure is crumbling under the growing population.”
Though she avoids hitting out at her political opponents directly, she takes a dig at Congress candidate Pawan Kumar Bansal by talking of “those who got clean chit despite indulging in corruption” and BJP’s Kirron Kher as a “mother figure who is contesting at an age people retire”.
Other than their Bollywood and Chandigarh connection -they were both born in the city --army background and dimples, there is little in common between the two stars.
Kher, who landed in Chandigarh on Tuesday to black flags shown by a deeply divided BJP unit, started her poll campaign by first meeting the city’s industrialists and traders at a hotel. After presidents of many associations presented her bouquets, she bears the long speeches with a smile and at times humour.
Health officials in both states said that monitoring of people suspected to have symptoms of swine flu was being done and confirmed cases were being treated in isolation wards of hospitals. They said that adequate stocks of medicines were available and people were being made aware about the spread of the disease.
