Sonakshi Sinha, who is currently busy shooting for Dabangg 3 in Mumbai, will head to Uttar Pradesh today
Shaheen Parkar (MID-DAY; May 3, 2019)

As Poonam Sinha, Samajwadi Party's Lok Sabha candidate from Lucknow takes on Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh in the ongoing polls, the actor-politician will have the strong backing of daughter Sonakshi. mid-day has learnt that the star, who is currently busy shooting for Dabangg 3 in Mumbai, will head to Uttar Pradesh today to campaign for her politician mother.

Says a source, "Sonakshi will leave for Lucknow this afternoon. She is slated to take part in the roadshow. The actor has been roped in for the final round as campaigning ends on Saturday, ahead of the polls on May 6." While Congress has fielded spiritual guru Acharya Pramod Krishnam, it is speculated to be a close call between Poonam and the sitting MP. Given her star power, Sonakshi — the source adds — is being roped in to attract the crowds, and hopefully, the votes.

It may be noted that Sonakshi had steered clear of canvassing for father Shatrughan Sinha during his electoral stints in 2009 and 2014 from Patna Sahib in Bihar, maintaining that she wanted to stay away from politics. But this time around, the actor has done a rethink and decided to take the plunge for mommy dearest. When contacted, Sonakshi's spokesperson confirmed the news. On her part, Poonam has emerged the richest candidate in the fifth phase of the Lok Sabha elections.

Sonali Joshi Pitale (MID-DAY; April 7, 2014)

TV actress Urvashi Dholakia was going to contest the Lok Sabha elections this year; she was supposed to represent Samajwadi Party. Known her portrayal of a vamp in several serials, she had filed her nomination papers over the weekend but they were rejected.

Says a source, “After Kamaal R Khan was ousted from the party, Urvashi was supposed to fill in for him and contest elections from the Mumbai North West constituency. But when she went to fill the form and submit the documents, the application was rejected as she had missed the deadline for the same.”

Farhan Azmi, who is contesting elections from Samajwadi Party, says, “Urvashi wanted to contest from the same constituency. She went to file the form and had completed all formalities, including a payment of Rs 25,000. She even got a receipt, but soon after she was told that her form has been rejected.”

The party will hold a press conference today in a bid to address the issue; it also plans to approach the court. Azmi feels that it was ploy against his party by a rival camp. “We want access to the CCTV footage as Urvashi was not late for filing the form. She just wanted to consult us and she called me to discuss the form. The authorities then told her that there are some minor spelling mistakes in her form and so on. We are surprised that they are not letting a woman contest the elections.”

Urvashi remained unavailable for comment.