Sushant Singh Rajput: Catch-all issue for BJP-JDU poll campaign in Bihar

In this newest reconstruction of Bihari pride, there is a subliminal suggestion that it can be defended by rallying behind the BJP and the JDU

The controversial death of a Bollywood actor could make him the face of elections to the Bihar state assembly in October–November this year. Another actor, Kangana Ranaut, is fast evolving into the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP’s) star campaigner as well.

Deceased actor Sushant Singh Rajput has been transformed into an icon of “Bihari pride” while Ranaut’s strident defence of Rajput as a ‘victim’ of corrupt Bollywood, is symbolically enhanced by referencing her role as a nationalist icon, the swashbuckling “Jhansi Ki Rani”. A recent demonstration in Patna staged a public recuperation of the legendary queen when a woman riding a