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Delhi polls: Doppelgangers make up for lack of celebrities
Doppelgangers make up for lack of celebrities fun
Not the Prime Minister, but Narendra Modi look-alike Abhinandan Pathak wants “security” for fear of the opposition attacking him.
Citing instances of receiving threats of getting beaten and chased, 52-year-old Pathak told HT, “I feel insecure, I am scared that the opposition who is insecure about Modi-ji’s growing popularity may attack me. It is not only about me, but if supporters on both sides end up fighting, peace will be disrupted.”
A resident of Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh, Pathak introduces himself as Nandan Modi. Even his caller tune is customised - “Thank you for calling Modi, please hold while your call is being answered.”
Donning a kurta, a Nehru jacket and a white beard like the PM, Pathak cycles around playing the ‘damru’ and when people gather around on seeing him, he talks about his “Ram - Narendra Modi, his elder brother.”
Pathak has already campaigned in Wazirpur, Timarpur and Seelampur for BJP candidates and is also the proud president of the “NaMo Sena India - an organisation of Modi Bhakts.”
Look-alikes of Ramdev and Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the streets of Delhi. (Arun Sharma/ HT Photo)
Pathak, who cycled to Delhi along with four others, will be here till February 5.
Having campaigned for the party during the Lok Sabha election, he says his motive is to see the “BJP victorious and expose Arvind Kejriwal’s lies.”
However, it is not only BJP who has the Modi look-alike, a Kejriwal look-alike is campaigning for the AAP.
Arun Srivastava, 40, walks around with thousands of AAP volunteers and is often misunderstood to be the party convener Arvind Kejriwal.
Srivastava too wears a maroon muffler pulled over his head, tucked inside his sweater, rectangular spectacles, a moustache and surprisingly, even a mole near his lower lip.
Like the original ‘muffler man,’ Srivastava also has his very own collection of 23 mufflers.
Associated as a volunteer with AAP since 2013, Srivastava said he was so impressed with Kejriwal’s movement to wipe out corruption that he took a three-month leave from work to join the party.
He has also gone for door-to-door campaigning in his constituency in Sadar Bazar posing as the leader.
“It was during the election campaigns in 2013 that people started telling me that I look like Arvind Ji. I am not even one percent of what he is and has done for our country but I think it is a blessing to look like him,” said Srivastava.
His only wish is to meet the man he idolises and stand with him on the same platform in the same attire.
BJP also has a Yoga guru Ramdev look-alike.
A resident of Mukherjee Nagar, Sanjay Talwar looks like the Yoga guru and is called “Babaji”.
Having acted in a few advertisements, Talwar is a BJP worker who was formerly a bus driver and now owns a mobile shop called “Floats” in Mukherjee Nagar.
“I am very fortunate to look like the Yoga guru. I also perform yoga.”
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