The Congress on Friday made an effort to match the star power of the Bharatiya Janata Party by parading a bevy of Bollywood personalities who spoke about the virtues of the party and its leader Sonia Gandhi.
Asrani, Celina Jaitley, Namrata Shirodkar, Zeenat Aman and Sharad Kapoor announced that they would campaign for the party in the coming Lok Sabha polls even as heroine of yesteryears Mausumi Chatterjee joined the party in the presence of Congress spokesman Anand Sharma and party leaders Suresh Kalmadi and T Subbarami Reddy.
At a press conference in the party's headquarters in Delhi, the stars, except Chatterjee, made it clear that they had not joined the party.
Soon after their announcement, Mausumi Chatterjee, who has acted in both Bengali and Hindi movies, joined the Congress in the presence of AICC general secretary Kamal Nath by signing the enrollment form.
She is willing to contest the election if the party asked her to do. "I can contest from anywhere in the country," she said.
All the stars met Congress president Sonia Gandhi before the media briefing.
Expressing support for the Congress, Asrani said, "Thode idhar jao, thode udhar jao and baki Congress ke peeche aao. These people are now polishing what the Congress did in the last 45 years," he said taking a dig at the government's India Shining campaign.
"If there is an all-India party in the country, it is the Congress. This is a party of poor people that believes in unity in diversity and which does justice to all. Go to any part of the country, you will find the Congress."
Replying to a question, Zeenat Aman said she believes in a secular India because she comes from a truly secular family. Her mother is a Brahmin and father a Muslim.
Shirodkar called the Congress a 'party with a history' and said she was 'proud to be part' of it. She called Congress president Sonia Gandhi a 'woman of substance'.
"The Congress stands for youth," Jaitley said.
