Actor Govinda called on chief minister Eknath Shinde on Friday apparently to seek a Shiv Sena ticket to contest the Lok Sabha election from Mumbai north-west.
However, sources said it was Shinde who sought out Govinda and asked him if he would be interested in contesting the upcoming poll.
Shinde's gameplan
Govinda had emerged as a giant-killer in 2004 when he gave a shock defeat to sitting M.P. and BJP veteran Ram Naik. Shinde's gameplan is apparently to field the actor against Amol Kirtikar who has been fielded by the Shiv Sena (UBT). Amol is the son of the sitting M.P. Gajanan Kirtikar who has joined Shinde. However, Kirtikar senior is not interested in contesting the poll since it would have pitted him against his own son. In the absence of a candidate of stature to defeat Amod, Shinde is toying with the idea of asking Govinda to enter the fray.
But the problem is since 2004 Govinda's popularity has been on the wane and it is doubtful if he would be able to pull the kind of crowd which he did 20 years ago. Also, his performance as an M.P. was short of pathetic. He rarely spoke in the Parliament and he did not even spend his M.P. 's area development fund fully. He was also inaccessible to his constituents. At 61, it is doubtful if would be able to do the kind of running about that an M.P. is required to make.
After the end of his term, he has gone on record saying that he committed a big mistake in entering politics, since it adversely affected his film career. Sources in the Shinde Sena said it would make more sense to field a mass leader like Kiran Pawaskar, who is close to the CM and is also a trade union leader. He is articulate and is essentially an organisational man.
Incidentally, many actors who entered Parliament have been relatively poor performers.
