Mumbai: Popular Marathi artist Sai Tamhankar, Sonalee Kulkarni, Siddharth Jadhav and a few other Marathi actors faced flak on Friday when they simultaneously tweeted a message which seemed to be about the prospect of mid-term election in Maharashtra.
In the last month too, eight prominent Indian female sportspersons, including shuttler PV Sindhu, world champion boxer MC Mary Kom, and London Olympic bronze medallist Saina Nehwal, had tweeted identical messages thanking PM Modi for his Bharat Laxmi initiative this Diwali.
The Marathi artists' tweets had been seen as a repeat of the same strategy to gain political mileage by BJP. The Congress and the NCP took strong objection to these tweets.
"Is BJP using these artists to carry forward their propaganda," asked Sachin Sawant, Congress spokesperson. "The use of hashtag 'election again' and tweets at almost same time by these actors raise serious questions and doubts.
The actors should explain the motive behind these tweets. Police should inquire whether the tweets are connected to BJP IT cell," demanded Congress pokesperson Sachin Sawant.
"In the past, we have seen that BJP has used artists for their propoganda. Cobra post has already exposed how BJP was paying crores to Bollywood actors for their propoganda. To save the progressive thoughts in the state, artists should not resort to such things," he said.
NCP leader Dhananjay Munde also lashed out at the actors. "Some artists have initiated #electionagain Twitter trend. This is very unfortunate. They should apologise to people. Artists should be mindful of the present political situation. This trend has confused the people,” Munde tweeted.
Promotion of a film?
The actors were apparently promoting a film, but the Congress and NCP lashed out at them, questioning if this was being done at the behest a political party.
"Punha Nivadnuk?" (elections again?), Tamhankar, Kulkarni, Siddharth Jadhav and others tweeted. With no party being able to form government after last month's polls, Maharashtra is currently under President's rule.
