Is BJP preparing to field Akshay Kumar in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls?

New Delhi: With the controversy over Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar's Canadian citizenship finally out of the way, the Bharatiya Janata Party is contemplating fielding him in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. 

Sources stated that the party leadership is considering fielding Akshay Kumay in the contest for the lower house from one of the three seats, Gurdaspur in Punjab, from a seat in Delhi or from Mumbai where the actor currently resides.

By putting Kumar in the fray, the BJP hopes to appeal to millions of his fans and also to the younger generation amongst whom the 55-year-old actor has a mass following.

Actor Akshay Kumar had on Independence Day announced that he had become an Indian citizen. Kumar shared a photo of his Indian citizenship certificate on X and said “Dil aur citizenship, dono Hindustani. Happy Independence Day! Jai Hind!”

Dil aur citizenship, dono Hindustani.

Happy Independence Day!

Jai Hind! 🇮🇳 pic.twitter.com/DLH0DtbGxk

— Akshay Kumar (@akshaykumar) August 15, 2023

The veteran actor Akshay Kumar and Prime Minister Narendra Modi enjoy a warm relationship over the past several years. In fact, the Bollywood actor was among the few who had been allowed to interview the Prime Minister ahead of the 2019 general elections. Interestingly, though Akshay Kumar’s father-in-law later superstar Rajesh Khanna was a renowned Congressman and an MP from the grand old party, the Bollywood actor has been known for his closeness with the saffron camp.

In 2019 also, there was talk of Akshay Kumar contesting the Lok Sabha elections. However, the Hindi movie star put an end to all the speculation by giving a clarification, through a tweet that he will not be contesting the polls. This has led to massive trolling and attacks on Akshay Kumar over his citizenship status by opposition parties and their supporters on social media.

Though the senior actor had been offered to contest the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, he has learnt to have politely declined the same as he was at that time still a Canadian citizen and was awaiting the clearance of his Indian citizenship allocation formalities.

Why is the BJP banking on Akshay Kumar?

By nominating Akshay Kumar for a contest in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP hopes to achieve a coup of sorts as a mainstream actor from the Hindi movie industry, and not just semi-retired ones like Hema Malini, Sunny Deol and Kirron Kher are fielded by the party.  

In fact, Akshay Kumar could lead the representation of Bollywood in the 2024 Lok Sabha as the BJP is expected to bench its current MPs from the fraternity, Hema Malini, Sunny Deol and Kirron Kher, in the next polls, due to age, health or other factors.    

With the BJP based largely in the Hindi heartland and over two-thirds of its Lok Sabha MPs in 2014 and 2019 elected from these cow belt states the appeal of Akshay Kumar is being majorly banked upon by the saffron alliance. Apart from the three Khans in Bollywood, Akshay Kumar is the only one considered to have a mass base in these regions.

The Hindi movie star is expected to be widely used for campaigning by the BJP and its National Democratic Alliance partners in the lead-up to the 2024 general elections, sources said.

With Prime Minister Narendra Modi set to seek his third term in the 2024 general elections, the BJP is working hard to retain its tally of 303 seats that it had secured in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. And the saffron unit is hoping to use all strategic assets, including Bollywood actors to increase its chances to seek an unprecedented third term in office.