While Hollywood stars wore their political preferences on their sleeves during the US elections, desi stars preferred to be evasive

Bollywood hottie Koena Mitra often emphasises she "has no understanding of politics and doesn't harbour any political ambitions". Yet the Apna Sapna Money Money star went campaigning for former Jharkhand chief

Vote de do: Actor Salman Khan campaigned for South Mumbai Congress Lok Sabha candidate Milind Deora Pics/ BIPIN KOKATE and Imtiyaz Khan

minister and Jharkhand Vikas Morcha supremo Babulal Marandi. The actress did this on the behest of "good friend Vinod Sinha," a prominent party member.

Koena wasn't the only celeb who canvassed for a personal contact. Most filmy figures campaign either for friends in political parties or only when they are inducted into a political outfit or are expecting a future in that party and politics.

This trend is very unlike Hollywood, which in recent times has had impressive endorsements in the US elections. Several Tinseltown A-listers donated money, raised funds and hit the campaign trail to back their choice of candidates.

While the Democratic contender Barack Obama had George Clooney, Robert De Niro, Oprah Winfrey, Jennifer Aniston and several others doing the groundwork for him, his opponent John McCain had Robert Duvall, Clint Eastwood, Sylvester Stallone and Jon Voight for support. Presidential primaries Rudy Giuliani and Hillary Clinton had Adam Sandler and Jack Nicholson backing them.

Most prominent names in Hollyworld made sure they made their political preferences clear and got into the business of working with the party workers a far cry from the desi scenario where most celebrities were non-committal about their party adherence.

Salman Khan, for instance, was seen campaigning for different aspirants from the Congress, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). Similarly, Sunil Shetty campaigned for Jitu Patnaik an independent candidate from Keonjhar.

The actor had also agreed to do the needful for senior BJP leader Shatrughan Sinha and good friend Sanjay Dutt who has joined Samajwadi Party. While these stars had no single choice of party and candidate, others like Aamir Khan, John Abraham and Abhishek Bachchan didn'tu00a0 go beyond urging fellow countrymen to vote in the elections. And then there were biggies like Shah Rukh Khan, Shilpa Shetty and Preity Zinta, who were off the election radar doing their jobs as IPL team owners in South Africa.

The political parties, too, didn't have celebs chipping in on their own. Says BJP's campaign manager Amitabh Sinha, "Normally, we have our in-house star-politicians helping each other during campaigning. Then there are instances when candidates invite celebrities. This depends on their personal equation."

Ad guru and social commentator Alyque Padamsee blames the lack of political participation among celebrities on vindictive politics. "They are frightened. If they support a candidate or an outfit and it loses, then the rival group intimidates them. Many times actors' allegiance with certain parties has caused issues in their income tax papers and other documents."

Actor Atul Kulkarni, feels expecting political will only from celebs is unfair. "Political complacency is something most Indians suffer from. For several generations, we have been taught that politics is dirty and that one should keep away from it." But being role models, shouldn't celebs be the ones taking the first step? To this, the Rang De Basanti actor responds, "Instead of targeting a certain section, the idea should be to make everyone aware and responsible. A banker is as much accountable as an artist or an actor."

A transparent system and increased people participation in the electoral process will ensure that both celebs and aam aadmi become more vocal about their political allegiance. "Indian politics in its current state is a huge muddle. People need to have clear choices. We can't have regional parties with regional issues contesting Union elections. This situation is so unlike the US a bi-party system where people elect a leader who in turn chooses his team. India needs to have an arrangement like this where two or three premier parties vie for the top job," sums up ad filmmaker Prahlad Kakkar.u00a0u00a0u00a0

Desi stars' campaign trail
Urmila Matondkar the Karzzz siren campaigned for Congress in Wardha, Maharashtra.
Raveena Tandon the Mast Mast girl along with actor Sunil Shetty attended three poll meetings for "good friend" Jitu Patnaik an independent candidate from Keonjhar.
Celina Jaitly keeping the family ties intact, the light-eyed beauty rooted for Lal Bahadur Shastri's grandson, Vibhakar Shastri. She said both her grandfather and the late Prime Minister were friends.
Mahima Chaudhary the Pardes girl went to Ranchi to campaign for Union minister and Congress candidate Subodh Kant Sahay.
Paresh Rawalu00a0a self-confessed Narendra Modi fan, Rawal along with Darshan Jariwala (of Gandhi My Father fame) and telly actors Manoj Joshi and Apara Mehta campaigned for the BJP in Gujarat.
Jeetendrau00a0backed Amrish Patel the Congress candidate from Dhule in Maharashtra.
Om puriu00a0the seasoned actor supported dancer Mallika Sarabhai, an independent candidate from the Gandhinagar constituency.

Famous first timers in poll fray
Bhojpuri superstar Manoj Tiwari has been nominated by the Samajwadi Party to contest the elections from Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh.
Congress candidate Shekar Suman contested from Patna Saheb constituency in Bihar
Mohammad Azharuddin, the former Indian cricket captain, is a Congress candidate from Moradabad parliamentary seat

America's star-studded campaign specials

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