MUMBAI: Right now India is captured with the frenzy of Lok Sabha Elections 2019. The ongoing voting is divided in phases and the financial capital of India, Mumbai will vote on 29 April 2019. Every candidate is trying his best to campaign himself/herself in the best possible way. Rahul Shewale, candidate for Mumbai South Central constituency of Shiv Sena Party has taken a different route to promote his candidature. He has hired two Gully rappers from Dharavi area, a part of his constituency to campaign for him in the rap format!
The two rappers are Sanjay Nagpal and Jafar Shah, who have composed a rap for this promotional campaign and were seen rapping across the streets of Dharavi. The initiative was much liked by the residents, who found it interesting. The tough part for the rappers was penning the lyrics themselves. Sanjay says, “When we rap usually we can use words we want to. However, this occasion is different as we are actually promoting for an apolitical party and thus the words had to be perfect.”
“We are happy to be canvassing for a candidate like Shewale sir as he has done a lot of good work in the community,” he added.
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The song speaks about the good work done by the current government by giving introducing GST (Goods & Service Tax) as a relief for small traders, renaming of Elphinstone Station name to Prabhadevi, an Indian name. However, what appealed the Sena supporters was the punchline, ‘Ekach Saheb Balasaheb’, which is a tribute to Sena chief Balasaheb Thackeray.
This promotional activity seems to be done under the influence of the recently released and majorly successful Bollywood movie, Gully Boy, where the main lead too is a resident of the ghetto area in Mumbai but rises to fame due to his talent.
Last year, Shiv Sena had organized ‘I am Dharavi’ festival during which, they came across the talent hidden in the ghettos. Shewale said that he is happy seeing youth supporting him in this election and the rap song was a sure way of appealing to the young voters!
*The song is yet-to-release on WhatsApp and YouTube, but is expected soon.
