Face Value and Democracy: Celebrities Contesting 2019 Lok Sabha Elections of India
How much do you believe in face value? Well, a large section of the Indian population is propelled to vote for the popular faces. Commenting on the weapon of popularity used by political parties, Senior Fellow at the Centre for Policy Research and Assistant Professor at Ashoka University, Neelanjan Sircar said, “What strikes me about bringing in a celebrity is that if he wins, he is no threat to party leadership. He will not be, in any way, a meaningful dissenting way. So a party benefits in two ways – you can potentially pick the seat riding on his fame, and he is no threat because he has no organizational depth within the party. So it is an effective tool to centralise authority.” Launching celebrities as candidates and prospective ministers of the respective political party have become a trend in Indian politics and 2019 Lok Sabha Election is no exception. While the current environment before the general election is discussed and analysed to seek predictive results, Sheer An
