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on 2007/4/24 22:43:21
Yesteryears Bollywood star Zeenat Aman, who campaigned for D.P. Yadav, Uttar Pradesh's controversial politician who has a number of criminal cases against him, has turned to help the Congress now.
Zeenat was roped in to campaign for the Congress by party president Sonia Gandhi's close confidante and Union Minister of State for Steel Akhilesh Das for the assembly polls and she was campaigning in the state capital - the stronghold of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) stalwart and former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
Zeenat as late as April 15 had been campaigning for Yadav, who has a long list of criminal cases against him, ranging from murder, kidnapping, extortion and even charges under the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities Act (TADA).
Das was at his wit's end when a scribe confronted the 1970s star with a query about her campaign for Yadav - in news recently as father of Vikas Yadav, the key accused in the sensational Nitish Katara murder case, who is presently serving a sentence in jail in the Jessica Lall murder case.
"Well, Zeenat is not a Congress member. She went to campaign for D.P. Yadav in her personal capacity, so it's not fair to ask her about that," pleaded Das after literally snatching the mike from the visibly embarrassed actress.
Zeenat said: "Well, I have personal relations with D.P. Yadav and his family, so I went there."
Yadav, who is the president of his outfit Rashtriya Parivartan Dal, was contesting for the Sehaswan seat in Budaun district, which went to polls April 18 during the third round of the seven-phased Uttar Pradesh elections.
Addressing roadside rallies in Budaun last week, Zeenat reportedly went to the extent of describing D.P. Yadav as "a well-meaning human being who would take good care of the electorate".
Ironically, Congress leaders were then busy listing the long dossier of charges against Yadav.
It was no surprise that Zeenat failed to draw any crowds in the city. "I wonder why the Congress is still living in the 1970s," quipped a Lucknow University student.
She campaigned mainly for Sushil Dubey who was handpicked by Das for the Lucknow (West) constituency.
Interestingly, Congress leader Rajeev Shukla Saturday brought yet another Bollywood actress, Celina Jaitley , to campaign for the party.
Congressmen who were hopeful of exploiting Jaitley's Lucknow connections - she belongs to the city - were in for a disappointment as she failed to make any impact beyond hitting headlines in some local dailies.
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