Actor-activist Prakash Raj, who has announced his decision to contest the upcoming Lok Sabha elections from Bangalore Central constituency, said on Friday that he would contest as an Independent and not under the banner of any political party as most of the parties are communal.

The multi-lingual actor, who has been vocal about his views on Narendra Modi-led Union government, said, “Today every political party is associated with some religion or community which again makes them communal. I’m not against any community, but against the communal forces. I want to be the voice of people, he told reporters.

When told he could end up eating into Congress votes in the Lok Sabha election, Raj said, “If the Congress party fear that I would end up eating into secular votes, the grand old party is free to support me.”  

READ: 'Bangalore Central is my home, so I chose it as my constituency'

To a specific question, Raj said he was not averse to joining Mahaghatbandan, the grand alliance of anti-BJP parties to fight against ‘communal’ forces.  

Raj said he decided to contest the election from Bangalore Central because he was born and grew up in the area where the electorate was secular in nature.

Coming down on the BJP with regard to its alleged attempt to topple the coalition government, Prakash Raj said, “The BJP is a bunch of shameless people.”

“They call themselves ‘gau bhakts’ (worshippers of cow) but on an important festival of worshipping cow (Makar Sankranti), they camped in a resort in Delhi instead of being at home,” he said.

The BJP MLAs were camping at a luxury hotel in Gurugram, a move the party has defended saying it was to protect their lawmakers from poaching attempts by the ruling coalition in the state, Raj said.

Raj said that the murder of his journalist-friend Gauri Lankesh forced him to speak so much against the communal forces and to take an electoral plunge.