Actor Prakash Raj launches Lok Sabha election campaign

Multilingual actor Prakash Raj, who recently announced his political debut, kickstarted his election campaign on Friday.

The campaign was launched after offering prayer at a darga in Shivajinagar, which falls under Bengaluru Central Lok Sabha constituency.

Prakash Raj and his supporters walked through the narrow lanes of Shivajinagar area and greeted the voters.

Prakash Raj is a well-known face in the area, a hub for people with varying linguistic backgrounds.

While he is Prakash Raj for Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam speakers, he is the ‘Singam Ka Villain’ for the Hindi and Urdu speakers. However, he remains Prakash Rai for Kannadigas.

The campaign that started in the afternoon went well into the night. Prakash Raj differentiated his campaign from other election rallies and termed it as ‘Seeking Citizens Manifesto’.

“This is not a normal election campaign that all the politicians do,” Raj told DH.

“None of the politicians would’ve walked the lanes I walked today. For ages, the plight of these citizens is the same.“My aim is to gather inputs for my manifesto, which I am doing. I would keep up my promise to people and there is also a ray of hope among the people,” Raj added.

When asked about the response for his campaign, Raj said, “People are convinced about my approach. I am feeling empowered day by day. It’s time for my motto to make the parliament hear the citizen’s voice.”

“We have hope on Prakash Raj sir, since the day he raised his voice against the increasing intolerance in the country. All these days we were dependent on political parties. But this time we trust Prakash Raj, who is a one man army and away from all the political parties, since he is contesting as an independent,” Patrick, a Shivajinagar resident, told DH.