Lok Sabha Polls 2024: Akshay Kumar from Chandni Chowk? BJP gets rolling in Delhi after AAP-Congress tie-up, says report

Bollywood superstar Akshay Kumar may replace former Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan from Chandni Chowk in the 2024 Lok Sabha election, according to a report in the Hindi daily Navbharat Times.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi during an interaction with Bollywood superstar Akshay Kumar. (Photo: ANI)

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The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has started discussions on Delhi’s seven Lok Sabha seats as the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Congress decided to contest these seats together in an alliance

The BJP, which won all seven parliamentary seats of the national capital in 2014 and 2019, is discussing the choice of candidates for the seven seats. The brainstorming has been revolving around whether or not to repeat the MPs

While no names have been finalised yet, sources said some of the sitting members of Parliament might not get repeated and instead new names will come up. And among the new names, according to a report in the Hindi daily NBT, is actor Akshay Kumar. While there has been no official word yet, the report says, Kumar might be asked to contest from the Chandni Chowk seat in Delhi. BJP leader and former Union minister Dr Harsh Vardhan won the seat twice in 2014 and 2019. The seat was won by former Congress leader and Union minister Kapil Sibal in 2004 and 2009.

‘The AAP-Congress alliance will certainly impact the party’s approach to candidate selection in Delhi since the contest is now bipolar and not tri-corner as it was in 2019,’ a recent report in The Indian Express said, quoting a source.

It is worth mentioning here that the Chandni Chowk to China actor Akshay Kumar had spent a large part of his childhood in Delhi, before moving to Mumbai. In a recent interview, he had admitted that he lived with 24 of his family members in a small house in Chandni Chowk.

“We were 24 people living in the same house in Chandni Chowk. We all would sleep in the same room. In the morning, when we woke up for exercise, everyone would jump over each other to get out,’ he told news agency ANI.

Kumar had faced criticism for making movies that silently supported Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led BJP government’s projects, a charge that the actor had denied saying he made movies on projects during previous Congress governments too.

Among other seats that the BJP is thinking of changing the candidate is North East Delhi. The seat is presently represented by former BJP, Delhi President Manoj Tiwari, who has won the seat twice.

The Aam Aadmi Party and the Congress on February 24 announced a formal seat-sharing arrangement in Delhi. As per the agreement, the Congress will field candidates in North East, Chandni Chowk, and North West and the AAP will field candidates in New Delhi, East Delhi, West Delhi and South Delhi seats.

The parties have also agreed on a seat-sharing arrangement in Gujarat, Haryana, Chandigarh and Goa. The AAP will contest two seats – Bharuch and Bhavnagar seats in Gujarat.