Actor Sunny Deol joins BJP, likely to contest from Gurdaspur in Punjab

Actor Sunny Deol joined the BJP, a few days after meeting party president Amit Shah, and is expected to be the party’s candidate from Gurdaspur in Punjab.

Deol’s reasons

In a brief speech, Deol said that just as his father had stood with Atal Bihari Vajpayee, he had decided to go with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and that he wanted Modi as Prime Minister for another five years.

Only a week earlier, after his meeting with Shah, he had played down talk of a political entry, saying he had simply met Shah and the two had taken a photograph.

Welcome from ministers

Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, welcoming him, recalled his 1997 hit “Border”, set during the 1971 India-Pakistan war, and said the film showed how patriotism, when portrayed well on screen, could connect with audiences. Union Minister Piyush Goyal said such feeling could not be acting when it came from the heart.

Deol’s most recent film, “Mohalla Assi”, was shot in Varanasi, Modi’s constituency, and showed his character taking part in kar seva for the Ram temple in Ayodhya.

The Gurdaspur seat

The BJP, an ally of the Shiromani Akali Dal in Punjab, contests three of the state’s 13 Lok Sabha seats: Amritsar, Gurdaspur and Hoshiarpur. Gurdaspur was represented by veteran actor Vinod Khanna, who died in 2017, and there had long been talk that the BJP might field his wife Kavita Khanna or his son Akshaye Khanna there.

Deol, 62, is known for action roles in films such as “Ghayal”, “Gadar: Ek Prem Katha”, “Damini” and “Border”. He is the third member of the Deol family to enter politics with the BJP, after his father Dharmendra and Hema Malini, both veteran actors.

See also: constituencies

Originally published on 23 April 2019. Rewritten on 9 October 2026.

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