Stays in the limelight, as she likes to.
By Tathagata Mitra
BANGALORE: It is really surprising how when after a 10-year-old government is voted out of majority, when a party has a clear majority for the first time in 30 years, when the global attention is on Narendra Modi, the new Prime Minister of India, the media still manages to squeeze in attention to one independent candidate who got only a handful of votes.
Actress and reality TV star Rakhi Sawant decided on March 26th, that she would stand as an independent candidate from Mumbai North-West for the Lok Sabha elections. Two days later, she formed her own party, Rashtriya Aam Party (RAP). The party’s symbol during the election was a green chili. And if that wasn’t enough, Sawant went around promoting her party dressed in all greens.
“I am unhappy because I lost but happy because BJP won,” Rakhi Sawant told the media, after a resounding loss.
According to some sources, she got only 15 votes after three rounds of counting. According to others, she got only about 2000 votes.
Either way, she lost her deposit for the elections which led to a major disappointment for this controversial celebrity.
She was heard saying, “I’m resigning from my party, since I have learned you can only win if you’re affiliated to a big party.”
She attributed her failure at the elections to her lack of campaign funds: “You can win an election only when you have money. I have lost only because I did not have crores.”
One of Sawant’s voters Siddhi Rajendra, a housekeeping worker at a mall, told DNA India: “She is a woman and she understands our issues… I was confident she would fight for women’s rights.”