The actor-turned-politician skipped the Presidential polls, as he is abroad for medical treatment. This is not his first case of absenteeism. He didn’t campaign for the BJP during the Punjab Assembly elections and also last visited his constituency in 2020
Sunny Deol, the Gurdaspur MP, was among the eight parliamentarians who were absent for the Presidential polls. Image Courtesy: iamsunnydeol/Instagram
The Presidential elections are done and dusted and Droupadi Murmu has emerged the winner, becoming the first tribal President of the country.
As per the Election Commission data, Murmu polled more than 64 per cent of all votes, leaving her rival, Yashwant Sinha with a mere 36 per cent share.
However, it has been reported that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is quite unhappy with Gurdaspur MP Sunny Deol.
For those wondering what’s the link between the actor-turned-politician and President-elect Droupadi Murmu, read on.
Missing in action
On 18 July, MPs and MLAs across the country participated in the historic process of electing India’s next President.The Election Commission later reported a turnout of 99.12 per cent.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who has tested positive for COVID-19, also turned up at room number 63 of the Parliament House in New Delhi in a full PPE kit to cast her vote.
However, there were others who didn’t turn up to cast their election — the EC reported that a total of eight MPs were absent for the election.
One of them was famous actor-turned-Gurdaspur MP Sunny Deol. It is reported that he is abroad for medical treatment.
The others who didn’t make it were BJP’s Sanjay Dhotre, who is in the intensive care unit at a hospital, Shiv Sena’s Gajanan Kirtikar, who is also hospitalised.
The other absentees were BSP leader Atul Singh, who is in jail, AIMIM leader Imtiyaz Jaleel, Congress MP Mohammad Sadiq, Samajwadi Party’s Shafiqur Rahman Barq and Dravida Munnetra Kazagham’s TR Paarivendhar.
Where is Sunny Deol?
Sunny Deol’s absenteeism at the presidential election hasn’t been well received.
In fact, the BJP has been miffed with the Gurdaspur MP as he has pulled a vanishing act on his constituency.
In the 2019 general elections, Sunny Deol had pulled off a major political win when he defeated then senior Congress leader and favourite Sunil Jakhar.
The Indian Express reports that Deol has stayed away from Gurdaspur since September 2020 and a simple look at his Twitter timeline reveals his last political entry was back on 31 March when he tweeted about meeting Union minister Piyush Goyal.
The actor has earned the wrath of the party’s grassroots workers and leaders as he has remained ‘unavailable’ or ‘too busy’ to meet them.
File image of actor-turned-BJP candidate Sunny Deol during his election campaign for the Lok Sabha polls. PTI
During the campaigning for the 2022 Punjab Assembly elections too, Deol remained conspicuous despite the fact that he was listed as a star campaigner for the party in the state.
Deol didn’t even show up for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s rally in Pathankot.
The party performed poorly in the elections — winning only two seats with state BJP president Ashwani Sharma winning from Pathankot and Jangi Lal Mahajan registering victory from Mukerian.
The MP’s non-appearance has angered the leaders that they hope that the 2024 general elections be the end of his political career.
“Party leaders hope that Deol’s political career will end like his father Dharmendra’s and he will not return to claim a ticket in 2024. This will give a chance to local BJP leaders who were rejected last time as Sunny Deol parachuted in,” a local leader was quoted as telling Indian Express.
His absence has also been picked up by the Congress in 2021 and they put up “missing person” posters with the MP’s photo.
‘Gumshuda ki talash MP Sunny Deol (Missing MP Sunny Deol)’ posters were seen on the walls of the Pathankot Railway station.
The MP also has a poor Lok Sabha attendance record — in the Budget Session of 2019, he recorded an attendance of only 19 per cent. His highest attendance, 65 per cent, was seen in the Winter session the same year.
The Winter Session of 2021 saw him recording an attendance of zero per cent.
A look at the MP’s social networking feeds show that he has been around and his last tweet, which was posted on 21 July, congratulates Droupadi Murmu on her win.
It seems that Gurdaspur will have to keep waiting for their ‘tareekh’ to see their MP back and working for them.
With inputs from agencies
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