Amitabh Bacchan Election Story: With India’s independence, Lok Sabha elections were held for the first time in the country in the year 1951-52. From then till now, there are many such stories related to election campaigning, voting and counting of votes which come to people’s mind with every election. One such election incident is related to the 1984 Lok Sabha elections, when women left lipstick marks on the ballot papers.
The megastar of the century, Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan was the Congress Party candidate from Allahabad Lok Sabha seat. Veteran leader of Bharatiya Lok Dal Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna was contesting against him. In the year 1977, Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna was the person who left the Congress and helped the Janata Party to come to power at the Centre.
Rajiv fielded his friend to defeat Bahuguna
Lok Sabha elections were being held in 1984 after the assassination of PM Indira Gandhi. In this election, the entire responsibility of the Congress Party was on the shoulders of Rajiv Gandhi and he also had to take political revenge from Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna. Public sympathy was with Congress, so Rajiv Gandhi fielded his friend actor Amitabh Bachchan from Allahabad. In this election, actor Amitabh Bachchan had also defeated Janata Party candidate Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna.
Women had left lipstick marks on the ballot paper
The contest between Amitabh Bachchan and Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna was becoming interesting. Wherever megastar Amitabh went, youth used to wait for hours to get a glimpse of him. Women used to throw their dupatta on him during the election campaign. Amitabh Bachchan’s popularity was also visible in the results. At that time ballot paper was used in elections. When the counting of votes started, the officials were shocked to see that the women had voted for actor Amitabh Bachchan only in the ballot paper but had left the mark of lipstick on it.
Due to this, approximately four thousand ballot papers were cancelled. Despite this, megastar Abitabh Bachchan got 2 lakh 97 thousand 461 votes. Whereas, his rival Bharatiya Lok Dal candidate Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna got only 1 lakh 09 thousand 666 votes. He also got the advantage of being from Allahabad in the elections. Amitabh Bachchan used to say in public meetings, “Wherever I go, I am called Chhora Ganga Kinare Wala.” Due to all these reasons the result was in favor of Amitabh Bachchan.
Mahanayak did not like politics
Amitabh Bachchan now Lok Sabha Elections After winning, he became an MP but he did not like politics for long. His political innings could not even complete a five-year term before Mahanayak resigned from the MP membership. The Bofors scam had also increased the distance between the Gandhi family and him. Actor Amitabh Bachchan had retired from politics at that time, saying, “It was a mistake for me to enter politics. I had got ready to contest elections out of emotions, but politics is actually quite different. Ultimately, I accepted everything.” .
