The entire city of Mumbai is looking forward to phase four of Lok Sabha Elections which is three days away. This indeed is the peak time for candidates to get people interested in them and their respective political parties. Read along as I trace four candidates from Mumbai who were wise enough to ditch the traditional campaigning techniques and win people’s hearts in no time.
Megastardom: Shatrughan Sinha recently shifted from BJP to Congress and thus held rallies in Mumbai to support fellow candidates. The rallies held by him were for Urmila Matondkar, (another Bollywood star-turned-politician) and Sanjay Nirupam, (another BJP candidate like Sinha who switched to Congress). This is indeed a great move to make the most use of the stardom these Bollywood actors have.
Green campaign: Aftab Khan, a real estate broker who is standing individually in North Mumbai against Congress’ Sanjay Nirupam and Shiv Sena’s Gajanan Kirtikar, has gone green instead of using the traditional campaigning methods, seeking votes. He is urging his voters to pay him one rupee online as they vote for him, in order to keep a track of the votes. This because he does not hold any faith towards the EVM’s counting. When it comes to the manifestos, the individual candidate is sending out WhatsApp messages and creating YouTube videos.
A sweet recognition: On March 27, 2019, Bollywood actress, Urmila Matondkar joined Rahul Gandhi’s party, ‘Congress’ and she has been campaigning since then. But how? In the traditional method? Yes! But in a little more quirky manner. Urmila Matondkar was campaigning door-to-door in North Mumbai, giving flowers to people, hugging them, greeting their family members and seeking votes from them. She was also accompanied by a bunch of women who were walking along with her as she campaigned. Matondkar’s stardom played a huge role here as a woman was praising her with a Puja Thali like anybody would praise the Lord.
Heart-to-Heart Talks: Priya Dutt, a firm believer of democracy and that people should vote for change, took her campaigns to the next level. This candidate from North Central constituency, held meetings instead of traditional campaigns to understand and address people’s expectations from the new government. These meetings were held in Chembur, Kurla (East) and Sion simultaneously where at least a participation of 100 was seen in each location.