PM lookalike meets voters in south Delhi

While Prime Minister Narendra Modi was attending to US President Barack Obama on the Republic Day, his lookalike made heads turn while campaigning with BJP candidate Nandini Sharma in Malviya Nagar constituency on Monday.

Dressed in a saffron waist coat and a bright mustard kurta and pyjama, the silver-bearded and haired “dummy” Modi flashed a smile and waved at the crowds from atop a mini-van as Sharma’s  supporters shouted slogans of “Modi, Modi”

Sharma, a homeopath and social activist from Malviya Nagar area, too sported a yellow dress and enjoyed the attention she got from onlookers who came out in their balconies to catch a glimpse of the “Prime Minister”.

“Is he really Modi?” asked Sarla, a housewife, from a BJP worker shouting the Modi slogan.
The worker smiled and said: “Modi is omnipresent”.

Some young voters even walked up to the mini-truck and shook hands with the Modi lookalike.
Richa, a chartered accountant working in an MNC, was one of them.

She said: “It was so exciting even though it wasn’t the real man. You never know, I could shake hands with the real Modi the next time.” 

Modi lookalikes have earlier been used in Gujarat elections and it seems to be a trusted formula of the saffron party to cash in on the popularity of the Prime Minister among the youth.

Modi himself is likely to join the party’s campaign and address a rally on January 31 in east Delhi and follow it up with three more events.

Sharma and the Modi lookalike travelled through some narrow lanes, occasionally, stepping down from the mini-van for addressing small groups of voters.

The BJP candidate said: “I have come to seek your blessings. They say it is good to seek the blessings of elders before starting something important like the poll campaign.”

Women security and improvement of civic services like water supply, she told Deccan Herald in a brief reply, is on her priorities.

She hugged women voters as they lunged forward to garland her. “She is our doctor, we will definitely vote for her,” said Pushpa Chawla, a resident of E-block in Malviya Nagar. Women voters waived at her as Sharma flashed the victory sign. 

Sharma is pitted against controversial former law minister Somnath Bharti of the Aam Aadmi Party, who enjoys huge sympathy in pockets of residents who praised his “raid” against foreign nationals allegedly involved in drugs and prostitution rackets. Dalits too have a soft corner for him.

He beat BJP heavyweight Arti Mehra by 7,772 votes. The Congress has fielded its old war horse and former Delhi speaker Yoganand Shastri.

The constituency is a mix of slums, middle class and upscale colonies. Each has its own problems but the common issues remain to be water shortage, encroachment, lack of parking space and bad roads and pavements. There is also a sizeable population of Muslim voters who account for 10 per cent of the over 1.25 lakh voters.