Sanjay Dutt promising people to 'Gandhigiri' in elections

Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt charmed Lucknow - from where he intends to contest Lok Sabha elections - as he went on a political road show for the first time, promising people to live up to him screen image of Munnabhai with ’Gandhigiri’ and ’jadu ki jhappi’. Dutt took Lucknow by storm as he drove through the streets of the Uttar Pradesh capital, acknowledging the greetings of thousands who waited to cheer him.

Attired in a white khadi kurta-pyjama with a green muffler, a bearded Dutt was flanked by his wife Manyata well known filmstars-turned Samajwai Party MPs Jaya Prada and Jaya Bachchan, popular Bhojpuri star singer Manoj Tiwari and the party top brass including chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and general secretary Amar Singh.He won over the crowds by repeatedly referring to "Gandhigiri" - an unusual take on practising Mahatma Gandhi’s ideals of truth and non-violence as depicted in the box office blockbuster ’Lage Raho Munnabhai’ - and said he would give "jadu ki jhappi" to the people of the constituency - referring to the term made popular by his mega hit ’Munnabhai M.B.B.S.’.

"I will offer flowers to Mayawati," he quipped when asked how he proposed to handle his key opponent. "You will see my Gandhigiri in real life now," he told a crowded press conference here at the end of his four-hour road-show.
Asked to comment about who would play his "circuit", the right-hand man to the character of Munnabhai, pat came the reply from Jaya Bachchan: "All of us".

Dutt was not unnerved by the high-profile poll campaign being undertaken by BSP nominee Akhilesh Das, who is now likely to get a run for all his money that was pumped in to make the Lucknow contest among the most expensive in the country.
Sure enough, Dutt’s entry on the Lucknow scene has already sent jitters down the BSP rank and file.

The party’s discomfiture became visible in a shabby protest staged by a handful of Das supporters, who put up placards declaring, "Sanjay Dutt wapas jaao" (Go back Sanjay Dutt).Earlier, an anonymous hoarding replaced one of Das’s campaign hoardings, showing an AK- 47 rifle and captioned, "Lucknow does not want AK-47", in an indirect attack on Dutt, who continues to remain convicted under the Arms Act for possession of an AK-47 ahead of the 1993 Mumbai terror attacks.

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