Arun Govil, Ramayan TV serial's Ram, likely to contest Lok Sabha Elections 2019: Report

After widespread speculations about Bollywood stars Kareena Kapoor Khan and Salman Khan contesting Lok Sabha Elections 2019, there are reports that the Congress is considering Television actor Arun Govil, Ramayan TV serial's Ram, to take on Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Majahan from the crucial Indore Lok Sabha constituency in Madhya Pradesh.

According to a report, published on Times of India (TOI), Chief Minister Kamal Nath's office told the daily that Govil, who has always been close to the Congress, is one of the names being discussed for the Indore seat.

Other front-runners for the seat include minister for higher education Jeetu Patwari, party leaders Satyanarayan Patel, Pankaj Sangvi and Mahila Congress leader Archana Jaiswal.  Sanghvi, who contested from Indore -5 assembly seat in 2013, lost to BJP’s Mahendra Hardia by a margin of 11,000 votes.

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The Congress, which has been voted to power in Madhya Pradesh after 15 long years, reportedly eyes to bag 20 plus seats, including Bhopal and Indore, of the total 29 Lok Sabha constituencies in Madhya Pradesh. Bhopal and Indore are considered as the BJP's impregnable fortresses and hence is significant for the Congress in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls 2019.

Govil's entry into politics would be another trump card for the Congress followed by Priyanka Gandhi Vadra's appointment as the AICC General Secretary for Uttar Pradesh (East).

The Indore-Malwa belt is known to be a stronghold of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), but the Congress has made a strong comeback in the recently concluded Assembly Elections 2018.

Congress has been repeatedly losing the Indore seat to eight times MP Sumitra Mahajan. Congress' Satyanarayan Patel was lost to Mahajan twice in the 2009 and 2014 Lok Sabha Elections by a whopping number of votes.