Beyond cinema, Dharam Ji had an interesting political career

Mumbai: Though very brief, Dharmendra had a very interesting political career receiving brickbats and bouquets. Dharam Ji, as he was popularly known, had served as a BJP MP from Bikaner in the 14th Lok Sabha (2004–2009), however, his attendance was low.

Dharmendra was inspired by late Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and encouraged by former Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Lal Krishna Advani. 

Actor-politician Shatrughan Sinha, who was then with BJP and late Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley played key roles in bringing him to the BJP fold. 

He joined the BJP in 2004 at the height of the India Shining campaign on the eve of the Lok Sabha polls, however, though the BJP-led NDA lost to the Congress-led UPA, Dharmendra won the elections. 

Riding on his immense popularity as a film star, he defeated Congress candidate Rameshwar Lal Dudi by around 60,000 votes. However, he had refused to contest against former Lok Sabha Speaker Balram Jakhar from Churu in Rajasthan. 

However, he did not contest the 2009 polls - and preferred to stay away from politics. 

“I did the work, but someone else took the credit. Perhaps politics wasn’t for me,” he once said after saying goodbye to politics. 

However, the Deol family continues to be in politics. 

His son Sunny Deol and second wife Hema Malini later joined politics—Sunny winning once from Gurdaspur and Hema Malini three times from Mathura.

In fact, Sunny Deol once said: “My father didn't like politics"

Dharmendra’s controversial comment, saying he should be elected ‘dictator perpetuo’ to teach basic etiquette that democracy requires - backfired and received severe criticism.

“We don't know the ABC of politics but patriotism is in our blood, we will serve the nation. What I did in Bikaner you can go and see, Sunny will also serve the nation,” he once said in 2019.