Contesting the Gurgaon Lok Sabha constituency election on a Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) ticket, rapper-turned-politician Rahul Yadav Fazilpuria, who draws his last name from his native village Fazilpur Jharsa, says both his journeys have been “full of struggle”. “It took me seven long years of struggle before I tasted success as a rapper. No one from my family has ever been a singer, actor or had a Bollywood connection. As far as politics is concerned, there is not even a sarpanch in my entire family,” said Mr. Fazilpuria, who shot to fame with his song ‘Kar Gayi Chull’ in the 2016 film Kapoor & Sons. Adding the third dimension to what is largely being perceived as a direct contest between Congress’s Raj Babbar and BJP’s Rao Inderjit Singh, the 33-year-old said that his entry in politics was to bring “change”. Long before padding up for his political innings, he said he had been raising his voice for various issues. Mr. Fazilpuria claimed he was the first singer from Haryana to lend support to the year-long farmers’ movement and visited the stir site besides composing songs. He said he also sought justice for Punjabi singer Sidhu Moose Wala, who was murdered two years ago, and courted arrest over the demand for a separate Ahir regiment in the Army. “But none of the issues raised by us were ever resolved, be it the farmers’ movement or the [demand for an] Ahir regiment. It was then that I decided to take the plunge into politics,” said Mr. Fazilpuria, a school dropout, adding that he was known to the Chautalas long before he formally joined the JJP five years ago.
Low-key campaign
Keeping his campaign low profile, mostly holding “nukkad sabhas” (street corner meetings) with a gathering of a few hundreds, he largely focuses on civic issues, promising better health services and roads, and not forgetting to target his rival candidates for being much older than him.
“My mothers here prefer to buy a new washing machine over an old one that may suddenly come to a halt with a whirring sound. The same is true for political representatives,” he said while addressing a small gathering in Rajiv Colony off the Delhi-Jaipur Highway recently. Starting as early as 7 a.m., the singer addresses around two dozen meetings till late in the night amid blistering heat, but says it doesn’t exhaust him. The right wrist covered with sacred red threads, which he referred to as the love of “mothers and sisters” at his meetings, Mr. Fazilpuria says his celebrity status was of little help in his political journey but social media followers have showered him with a lot of love.
Work beckons
Eager to resume work, the JJP candidate says the shoot for a new Haryanvi song is slated for May 27, just two days after polling day, and the album is expected to be released next month. “It was scheduled for last month, but the dates were changed after the party named me its Lok Sabha candidate,” he says. Many of his friends from the entertainment industry, including ‘Golden Boys’ Sunny Nanasaheb Waghchoure and Sanjay Gujar of Bigg Boss fame, singer Gori Nagori and rapper Honey Singh, have campaigned for him on social media and also addressed meetings. Facing criminal charges for using prohibited snake species during a video shoot, Mr. Fazilpuria says those were used as props and all relevant documents regarding the permission were submitted to the investigating agency and the matter is in court.
