Dancing around sand dunes

The stars have descended on the Rajasthan political field. From the glitter of Bollywood to the hardcore campaigning of the likes of Narendr...

The stars have descended on the Rajasthan political field. From the glitter of Bollywood to the hardcore campaigning of the likes of Narendra Modi, the voters of Rajasthan get to pick their rally and choose the campaigner they want to spend the day 8216;8216;looking at8217;8217;.

While the BJP has roped in 8216;8216;all kinds of stars8217;8217;, the Congress is depending on Ashok Gehlot8217;s honesty and Sonia Gandhi8217;s gradually improving speeches.

In what is being described as a 8216;8216;must-win election8217;8217; for the BJP, the party has pulled out all stops to woo voters. Besides exploiting PM A.B. Vajpayee8217;s oratory skills and getting their leaders to whip up frenzy, the party has also roped in a bevy of Bollywood stars.

Shotgun Shatrughan Sinha has already initiated the Bollywood chapter. In Alwar to campaign for BJP8217;s Pushpa Gupta, he delivered his dialogues in filmi andaaz, telling voters to elect whoever was less corrupt.

Close on his heels, dream girl Hema Malini is going to hit the campaign trail, beginning her desert sojourn from Jaipur. And then of course, there is Dara Singh.

Besides the 8216;8216;film shows8217;8217;, also running in different parts of the state are cameo performances by BJP heavyweights L.K. Advani, Narendra Modi, Sushma Swaraj, Pramod Mahajan and Venkaiah Naidu.

However, as the curtain goes up on the Congress screen, there are no hearthrobs of yesteryear drawing crowds and the main stars are Gandhi and Gehlot. 8216;8216;We don8217;t feel the need to bring in filmstars,8217;8217; says Congress spokesperson Raghu Sharma. 8216;8216;The charisma of the BJP leaders has ended. They realised this at the recent Vajpayee rally in Bikaner. Now they have no option but to pull in crowds using glamour. But that doesn8217;t translate into votes.8217;8217;

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8216;8216;Rubbish,8217;8217; says Onkar Singh Lakhawat, BJP vice-president. 8216;8216;So what if they were stars. They are also members of Parliament and ministers. They are here in their capacity as BJP workers. Why should we only look at them as heroes or heroines?8217;8217;

The star-battle aside, like the BJP, the Congress has also roped in politicians from other states. Hitting the campaign trail are Ambika Soni, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Maharashtra CM Sushilkumar Shinde and its sole star of the silver screen, Sunil Dutt.

8216;8216;It8217;s simple,8217;8217; explains Sharma. 8216;8216;Our leaders can stand and talk about their work. But the BJP is ridden with a guilty conscience. They never visited the state during the drought and can8217;t face the public without these stars.8217;8217; But across the state, from almost all constituencies, the demand for Gehlot is the most. Everyone wants him, which is why he has decided to leave his own constituency to party workers and is rushing around the state, addressing as many public meetings as possible.

As far as the voter is concerned, it8217;s all about the moment. 8216;8216;Of course we go to see them,8217;8217; says Ram Avtar Meena. 8216;8216;But we are not fools. We don8217;t get star struck and blindly vote.8217;8217;