When Rajesh Khanna aka Kaka won Delhi

It was in 1991 when Kaka was fielded by the then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi and Congress Party as the parliamentary candidate from New Delhi Lok Sabha seat against the BJP stalwart and heavyweight Lal Krishna Advani who was not only an established Delhite but also a popular leader of the masses at the pan India level.

It was indeed a huge challenge for superstar turned politician Rajesh Khanna aka Kaka to counter Lal Krishna Advani’s growing political clout and popularity. Rajiv Gandhi who had special adoration and liking for Kaka wanted to keep Advaniji stagnated in New Delhi constituency such that he was not able to move elsewhere to campaign for BJP.

However, BJP stalwart Advaniji too was feeling insecure when the candidature of the first and original superstar of the Indian celluloid world Kaka was announced and the former filed his nomination from Gandhinagar, Gujarat as well, thinking, if he loses New Delhi, he will retain Gandhinagar seat. And this happened ultimately when Advaniji gave up the New Delhi victory by merely 1500 votes against Kaka and rather retained Gandhi Nagar’ s triumph as MP, thus seamlessly paving the way for a superstar of Bollywood to win against BJP’s Shatrughan Sinha in the second contest. Kaka being entirely new to Delhi, this being his first chance to plunge in active politics, faced lots of confusion initially as Delhi Congress was full of groups and subgroups fighting each other within the Delhi Congress.

After Rajivji’s sad demise in Sreeperumbudur, in a terrorist attack in May 1991, Narsimha Rao was sworn in as the prime minister. Kaka was now contesting against BJP’s Shatrughan Sinha during Narsimha Rao’ s tenure as PM. The then prime minister Narsimha Rao had instructed R. K. Dhawan, the then DPCC president H. K. L Bhagat and other senior Congress leaders to unitedly back Rajesh Khanna’s candidature by forgetting their personal differences. New Delhi parliamentary seat was in national news and Congress did not want to lose this prestigious seat by any means.

I fondly remember how Kaka worked extensively hard during both these elections by conducting extensive Padyatras in Cannaught Place, in Jhuggi clusters and in almost all the government and private colonies visiting every temple, gurudwara, church and mosque. Even his wife Dimple Kapadia and daughters Twinkle and Rinki had to be called from Mumbai to extend a helping hand to Kaka who in fact was avoiding calling the family. This was done to counter the proactive role of Kaka’s adversary Shatru’ s wife Poonam Sinha who was quite active in canvassing support amongst women electorates of New Delhi. I had to then organise a press conference at a Lodhi estate bungalow addressed collectively by Dimple, Kaka, Twinkle and Rinki attracting hundreds of press photographers and media men from inside and outside the country. Being new to New Delhi parliamentary constituency Kaka was completely unaware of its demography, culture and the political inclination of voters but he managed everything by the dint of his dedication and hard work.

During his campaigning, Kaka attended a number of cultural evenings and programmes as well, especially of Uttarakhand. He had special adoration for the Uttarakhandies and its colourful culture and attire. He, in fact, praised the Uttarakhand’s women beauty and loved the hill culture. He often used to request me to organise the cultural programmes of Uttarakhand in his constituency, especially because there were quite a good number of Uttarakhandi voters in New Delhi parliamentary constituency. On Kaka’s wish, I arranged one such Uttarakhandi cultural programme in Prem Nagar area adjacent to Sewa Nagar dominated by Uttarakhandies, in the afternoon where Kaka was the chief guest. Kaka posed for a photograph with the curious Uttarakhand artists and presented them trophies as well. He watched the entire cultural event happily and enjoyed it to the core.

He also addressed the audience requesting them to bless him in the election. The picture exhibiting me talking to Kakaji is of the same programme in Prem Nagar near Sewa Nagar, New Delhi. Alongside Kaka is Mr Wig a local Congress leader and Kaka’s die-hard fan from Ashok Vihar. Behind me in the picture is senior journo and Sandhya Times then correspondent Mr Nepali who used to be with us most of the time during the campaigning. Ashok Randhawa is also there behind us who used to campaign from the Mike during the Padyatras. There are lots of memories still fresh in my mind. Kaka had won this election hands down defeating actor Shatrughan Sinha.

Old Memories Die Hard – Rajesh Khanna