It’s star time for the BJP

The BJP will thus go into the poll arena this year with an array of film personalities, including the expelled Telugu Desam MP M. Mohanbabu, hero Giri Babu, Siva Krishna and Prasada Babu. "There are many more ready to join our party or campaign for it. We will disclose their names at the appropriate time," said a senior BJP leader.

Asked whether well-known director Dasari Narayana Rao, who has launched a political party, Telugu Talli (Mother Telugu), would form a part of the BJP campaign bandwagon, he said the party was a bit cautious with the film personality as he "appears to be a confused man". Dasari first proclaimed that his party would be contesting the Lok Sabha elections but retracted later and said that it would ready itself for the Assembly elections slated for 1999.

"Yes. He too has a large following and is free to campaign for us. We have told him that we are willing to have an alliance with his party," says BJP general secretary M. Venkaiah Naidu, who has been playing a role in getting important personalities into the party.

But does the BJP require the glamour of film heros and heroines when it claims to already have charismatic leaders? "They will help take the BJP message effectively to the rural masses. What is wrong in utilising their services? The Congress and the Telugu Desam too have done it," Naidu argues.

And the BJP may have to bank upon the popularity of these personalities to better its position. Despite a BJP wave in the North during 1991, the party was able to muster only 9.6 per cent of the vote in Andhra Pradesh and won only one of the 42 Lok Sabha seats in the State. Subsequently, this dropped to five per cent in 1996.

At no point of time did the percentage of votes for the BJP touch double digits but this time the party hopes to garner a whopping 30 per cent of the vote.

In the present circumstances, such a percentage would give it quite a few seats as there are bound to be multi-cornered contests with the Congress, Telugu Desam and the BJP and its allies in the fray. In some pockets in the Telangana region, there may be a few Majlis Ittehadul Muslimeen candidates as well.

Apart from falling back on film glamour, the party has been encouraging old-timers who still command respect in their areas to join up. Former MPs and chairmen of zilla parishads and senior retired bureaucrats are joining the BJP and the strategy appears to be to use their influence at the local or district levels.

But the film star strategy has not always been a success. In the past leaders from the tinsel world have helped political parties gather huge crowds for public meetings, but they have not been very successful in getting votes for the parties. A number of actors and actresses campaigned for Lakshmi Parvati’s NTR-TDP in the last parliamentary polls without much success.

The entry of film stars into serious politics started with N.T. Rama Rao and to counter his clout with the masses, the Congress brought in other stars, Krishna, Krishnam Raju, M. Prabhakar Reddy and Jamuna. Krishna and Jamuna were even elected to the Lok Sabha in 1989 from Eluru and Rajahmundry, respectively.

While NTR helped actors Ravu Gopala Rao and later Mohan Babu to become MPs, the present Telugu Desam president N. Chandrababu Naidu brought in veterans T. Sarada and K. Satyanarayana. They were elected from Tenali and Machilipatnam in the 1996 Lok Sabha elections.

"The BJP’s position has improved vastly and the crowd response during recent public meetings was tremendous. There is a lot of pro-BJP sentiment all over the country and in the State. Film personalities will in their own way help build confidence of the people in the party," says Venkaiah Naidu. He cites the examples of Shatrughan Sinha, Deepika and others in the North, who joined the party and helped its candidates win.

Mohan Babu is said to have promised to produce audio and video cassettes and campaign actively for the BJP. Vijayashanti too will tour the State and may even get a party nomination if she joins up.

"She will first have to join the party and I appeal to her to do so," Naidu said. With some more film stars ready to join the party, the election campaign this time holds promise of temporary entertainment for the film-crazy Andhra crowds.