Congress's star parivaar

Party high command interviews three actresses vying for a ticket for the forthcoming Assembly polls

It is raining film and TV stars for the Congress party this Assembly polls. Most stars interested in becoming netas seem to be approaching the party for a ticket.
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A Congress party election committee interviewed three stars seeking tickets on Wednesday.

Incidentally, all three of them are actresses Nagma, Kunika Lal and Ketaki Dave.

While Nagma is said to have staked her claim for the Malad (West) Assembly constituency, Kunika Lal wants to contest from either the Versova or Andheri seat. Ketaki Dave wants to contest from the Borivli constituency.

Political Drama: Kunika Lal during an interview at the Congress office in Dadar in the presence of Gurudas Kamat and CM Ashok Chavan.

Long wait

Nagma, who has actively canvassed for the party on earlier occasions, has been wanting to contest an election on a Congress ticket for quite some time and had even sought a ticket for the 2009 Lok Sabha elections from Mumbai.
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However, the Congress high command denied her one. She has now shifted focus to the Assembly elections.
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Said Nagma, "My name was in the running for the Lok Sabha elections from the North and North West Mumbai Lok Sabha constituencies.

So, I have sought a ticket from Malad (West), which falls in the Mumbai North constituency. I want a ticket from Mumbai because it is convenient for me to work here."

Lal was associated with the NCP earlier and had been working in the Andheri and Versova region. Lal crossed over to the Congress recently and has sought a ticket from either of these two constituencies.
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She said, "I sought these two seats as I have been working in these areas through two NGOs of mine CHIP and AURA.

We work in the field of children's education and infrastructure development. Besides, I have been doing social work for the last 23 years and I think there is a lot of scope for development in the constituency."

Dave is the surprise element among the actresses in the fray. Dave, a popular Gujarati TV and theatre actress, had no association with politics before this.

She suddenly appeared on the scene after campaigning for Sanjay Nirupam in the Lok Sabha elections. Dave was a participant in the reality show Bigg Boss along with Nirupam and is reportedly close to him.

It is said that Nirupam has pushed for her candidature before party leaders. No other party has seen this sort of interest from stars so far.

Popular Faces

Sources claim that cricketer Vinod Kambli is planning to contest the elections from the Chembur constituency on a Lok Bharati Party ticket.

Marathi actor Adesh Bandekar and singer Abhijit Sawant have joined the Shiv Sena, but it is still not known if they plan to contest the polls.