CHANDIGARH – Veteran actor and former BJP leader Dharmendra arrived in Gurdaspur on Friday to campaign for his son Sunny Deol for the Lok Sabha election, where he told reporters that he would not have allowed Deol to contest had he known he was up against Congress MP Sunil Jakhar.
“Balram Jakhar was like my brother; had I known his son Sunil Jakhar was contesting from Gurdaspur, I would have not allowed Sunny (to contest against him),” Dharmendra told the media.
Dharmendra explained that since Sunny came from the film industry he could not debate with an experienced politician like Jakhar.
“He (Sunil) is also like my son. I had a very strong and good relationship with his father Balram Jhakhar. Sunny cannot debate with him as he (Sunil) is an experienced politician and even his father was a very experienced politician, but we come from the film industry. Moreover, we are not here to debate but to listen to the plight of people as we love this land,” said Dharmendra.
The 83-year-old veteran revealed that he got very emotional when he saw people supporting his son during his first roadshow held after filing the nomination papers.
“I was watching the roadshow from Mumbai and there was a big crowd. I got emotional. I know people love us but I was surprised by seeing so much love,” he said
Sunil is the incumbent parliamentarian from Gurdaspur. He won the seat in the 2017 by-election after the death of actor-turned-politician Vinod Khanna. The constituency is a BJP stronghold and was first won by Khanna in 1998.
Polling will be held in Gurdaspur on May 19 in the seventh and last phase of the election.
