Kajari Bhattacharya
Here you can see Sanjay Dutt sulking while Nafisa Ali is all smiles on bagging the Lucknow Ticket and Amar Singh looks all dazed at his catch.
LUCKNOW, April 5: Having lost the Lok Sabha election 2004 to Trinamul Congress chief Miss Mamata Banerjee from the south Kolkata constituency, sportsperson and former Miss India Nafisa Ali is all set to replace “Munnabhai” Sanjay Dutt as a Samajwadi Party candidate from the Lucknow Lok Sabha constituency in the coming general poll.
SP general secretary Mr Amar Singh and “Munnabhai” Sanjay Dutt, also an SP general secretary, announced the candidature of Ali at the SP office here today.
In 2004, Ali contested on a Congress ticket. Displeased with the Congress for not giving her a ticket this time, the socialite is all set to try and match Sanjay Dutt’s glamour quotient in the prestigious Lucknow seat.
Talking to the Press here today, Dutt said: “Nafisa is like my sister. Manyata (his wife) suggested her name as the Lucknow candidate.” He added that he would campaign for Ali in Lucknow.
After the Supreme Court barred Dutt from contesting the election by refusing to stay the film star’s conviction in the Bombay Blasts case, the SP was hard put to decide on a candidate who could match Munnabhai’s glamour quotient as well as his Hindu-Muslim identity. Dutt’s father, veteran Congress leader Sunil Dutt was married to Muslim actress Nargis.
While Ali might not be able to charm the Lucknow electorate as much as Dutt with her considerably weaker glamour quotient, the Muslim actress-sportsperson-social activist-socialite is married to a Sikh, which works well for SP’s aim to project a secular image.
Confident of winning this time, the 52-year-old Ali said: “I am happy to have been selected by SP to represent Lucknow. I have a long association with the city and I will combat all those who have a communal agenda. I will win from here.”
Asked about her relations with the Congress, she said: “It is all history now and it does not matter anymore...I always look at the future. The way Gandhi family loves UP, I expect that the Congress will not field anybody against me in Lucknow. The Congress has no chance of winning in UP, SP will come back to power here.” Ali also commented on former Bharatiya Janata Party leader Mr Kalyan Singh, who, she said, “should be given a second chance”. She had the same to say for Gujarat chief minister Mr Narendra Modi, against whom she had campaigned after the Gujarat riots. “He too should be given a second chance, if he truly apologises for what all happened in Gujarat.”
Commenting on the Varun Gandhi episode, Ali said that she was “hurt” by it, as she too is a mother.
Mr Amar Singh said that Ali’s past association with Congress had left him in two minds for a while about selecting her as the Lucknow candidate.
“But my party leaders told me that the Congress did not think twice before poaching SP rebels such as Raj Babbar, Mr Salim Sherwani and Mr Beni Prasad Verma; so why should worry about this,” he said. Taking a dig at the Congress, he said: “While Sanjay Dutt was barred by the Supreme Court from contesting elections even though he has not even hurt a fly in the last 15 years, Mr Jagdish Tytler was given a clean chit by CBI for his alleged role in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots case.” He added, however, that despite the “violation of political traditions by certain managers in the Congress, we have no complaints against party president Mrs Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh. We don’t want to weaken the Congress.”
When I first saw Nafisa Ali in "Junoon" with Shashi Kapoor, I was jealous of Shashi.
Shashi had once come to our school to perform a number of plays of the Bard with "Shakespeareana", a performing group run by his to-be father-in-law, Geoffrey Kendall
I was in my late 20s and was passing through that stage in life when young men continuously fall in and out of love with beautiful girls. Of course it is all one-sided for the girl is hardly aware of the turbulence going on in the young man's mind..
And Nafisa was a real beauty, having won the Miss India contest in 1976 and was the runner-up in the Miss International contest in 1977.
After Junoon, I have followed her career with interest, especially her social work
Naturally therefore it comes as a shock that she should associate with persons like Mulayum Singh (who I have said earlier sponsors only goondas, dacoits and murderers in his party) and Amar Singh, the most hated political broker in India.
I would have thought she would have more sense.
It seems her penchant and thirst for being in the news has overcome her urge to do social work.
I do not wish her success.
I would have wished her success if she had stood as an Independent candidate.
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