Arun Govil

However, what is perhaps lesser known among fans who would light incense during Ramanand Sagar’s widely popular tele-serial in the late 1980s is that Govil was initially rejected for the role of the epic hero. Or that the actor’s family members and friends had dissuaded him from acting in a religious show as it would hurt his prospects in commercial cinema. Or that Govil realised the role of Lord Ram as his true calling before approaching Sagar.

The ruling BJP named Govil as its candidate for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections from Meerut, the actor’s birthplace, in the electorally-crucial western Uttar Pradesh region, which accounts for about 19 seats out of the state’s 80. This was also Govil's electoral debut.

Notably, he did fare in his first attempt as he won the election, despite the margin being just a little over ten thousand votes.

The BJP gave ticket to Govil by dropping its sitting MP Rajendra Agrawal, who has won from the Meerut seat for consecutive three terms since 2009.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Agrawal beat the BSP’s Haji Yaqoob Qureshi with a narrow margin of 4,729 votes. His winning margin was, however, over 2.32 lakh votes in the 2014 polls when he defeated the BSP’s Mohammad Shahid Akhlak.