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Monday, Apr 13, 2009
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Star-studded campaign in Berhampur

Staff Reporter

BERHAMPUR: Politics could bring back the hit romantic Oriya film pair Siddhant Mohapatra and Rachna Banarjee to Orissa soil again after many years.

But politics has surely widened the rift between them. The actor turned politician, Siddhant is the candidate of the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) from Berhampur parliamentary constituency. His Congress rival Union Minister Chandrasekhar Sahu in a strategic ploy managed to get Rachna come over and campaign for the Congress against Siddhant.

Siddhant and Rachna happened to be a hit pair of Oriya cinema. Gossips were rife that they had entered into secret wedlock. But all of a sudden Rachna had left Oriya film world to return back to ‘Tollywood’ of Kolkata. It is said that this ‘secret cine couple’ had ended their marriage in a family court in Cuttack in 2004. Both have since married again. She continued to act in Bengali and Telugu movies. She has also acted with Amitabh Bachan in ‘Suryavansham’.

The Congress leaders were compelled to rope in Rachna to counter the increasing hype of star studded campaign of Siddhant in rural areas of the constituency. Several Oriya filmstars and music album actors are coming down to campaign for Siddhant.

Rachna reached Gajapati district on Friday to start her campaign for the Congress and against her past co-star and romantic lead in films. She took part in road shows and street corner meetings at Gumma, Kasinagar, Paralakhemundi, Raygada of Gajapati district. On Saturday she visited areas of Berhampur parliamentary constituency like Chandragiri, Mohana, Digapahandi, Berhampru, Chatrapur etc. At all places her speeches were short. At times she sang some hit songs from her past Oriya films.

But to the dismay of several Congress leaders she did not prefer to make any direct attack on Siddhant. She only called upon voters to vote for the Congress. When asked by journalists, she said before reaching Orissa for the Congress campaign, she did not even know that Siddhant had entered active politics and was the candidate against whom she would have to campaign. She said she was campaigning due to her adoration of Sonia Gandhi and relationship with ‘Chandrasekhar bhai’.

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