In a significant development, veteran Bollywood actor Govinda officially joined Shiv Sena on Thursday, March 28, in the presence of Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde at a ceremony in Mumbai.
Reports suggest that the actor is likely to be fielded from Mumbai North West.
This is the actor’s comeback into politics after a long pause. In 2004, he contested the Mumbai North Lok Sabha on a Congress ticket and defeated BJP’s Ram Naik. However, he later resigned and took a break from politics altogether.
As Govinda was officially inducted into the party by the Maharashtra CM himself, he said, “I am joining Shiv Sena, and it is a blessing of God. I thought I would not enter politics again.”
He said that his parents had a good relationship with Balasaheb Thackeray, founder of Shiv Sena, and claimed the city has started to look better under the leadership of Eknath Shinde.
Speculations had gone rife that Govinda might be interested in his second innings in politics after meeting Eknath Shinde last week. On Thursday morning, he also met the party leader, Krishna Hedge, at his residence in Juhu.
Eknath Shinde said Govinda’s joining Shiv Sena comes with no rider, while Govinda avoided questions about contesting in the Lok Sabha elections.
