Veteran actor and former BJP lawmaker Dharmendra said he would not have let his son Sunny Deol contest the Lok Sabha elections from Punjab's Gurdaspur had he known who his rival is - Congress' Sunil Jakhar, the sitting lawmaker from the constituency.
"Balram Jakhar was like my brother. Had I known his son Sunil Jakhar was contesting from Gurdaspur, I would have not allowed Sunny," the 83-year-old was quoted as saying by ANI.
Sunny Deol, 62, is the third member of the Deol family to take a plunge into politics. Days after he joined BJP last month, he was declared the BJP candidate from Gurdaspur.
Dharmendra even went on to say that his son cannot debate with an experienced politician like Sunil Jakhar.
"Sunny cannot debate with him as he (Sunil) is an experienced politician and even his father was a very experienced politician, but we come from the film industry. Moreover, we are not here to debate but to listen to the plight of people as we love this land," he told ANI.
Sunny Deol raked up a controversy last week when he admitted he had little knowledge of India's relations with Pakistan and issues like the Balakot airstrikes.
Punjab will vote on May 19 in the last phase of Lok Sabha Elections.
Gurdaspur, which has traditionally been a BJP stronghold, will be one of the closely-watched contests. The seat was won by actor-turned-politician Vinod Khanna in 1998, 1999, 2004 and 2014. Congress' Sunil Jakhar won the seat in 2017 by-elections after his death.
