Gul Panag: From 'Miss India' to AAP candidate from Chandigarh LS seat

Gul Panag is Aam Admi Party's candidate from Chandigarh Lok Sabha seat in upcoming parliamentary elections. She is contesting against Kirron Kher of BJP and Pawan Kumar Bansal of Congress.She recently came into the limelight because of her controversial tweet aimed indirectly at her opponent Kirron Kher: “Doubt if I'll have the energy to run around like this and serve my people, when I'm 60. I guess that's why there's normally a retirement age”.Gul Panag's journey from a Bollywood actress to AAP candidate has been quite interesting."I don't know about the others, but conductor-saab, you must let me buy my own ticket," says Gul Panag, as she started off her Election rally in Chandigarh. Gulkirat Kaur Panag alias Gul Panag was born into a second generation armed forces family in Chandigarh on 3 January 1979.Gul Panag was crowned Miss India Universe in 1999, at twenty years of age. She was also crowned Miss Beautiful Smile at the same pageant.Gul Panag being multi-faceted is extremely passionate about automobiles, fitness, technology and aviation. Gul Panag runs an NGO – The Colonel Shamsher Singh Foundation- that works towards promoting citizen-government partnership towards gender equality, addiction awareness, education, employment and disaster management. The Foundation also runs an online volunteering portal the Social Outreach and Accreditation ProgramShe is also a freelance columnist writing on automobiles, travel, fitness and technology and has been on the jury of various Automobile and Technology Awards. She is well known for being supremely fit, is a serial half-marathon runner and is now working on program to evangelize her philosophy of strength, endurance and flexibility.Gul has been part of the Bollywood film industry for last 13 years as an actor and producer. Some of her well acclaimed films are: Dor, Dhoop, Manoram Six Feet Under, Hello, and Straight.Gul Panag won the Stardust Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role in 2009 for Hello. In 2007 she won the Screen Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for Dor. In the same year, Zee Cine Critics Award was bestowed upon her for Best Actress for Dor.She was also an active participant in the India Against Corruption (IAC) movement. She has created a niche for herself as a thinking actor; her choice of work setting her apart from her contemporaries.Apart from being an actor, Gul is a responsible activist and powerful opinion maker known to speak her mind fearlessly on a variety of issues covering a spectrum of issues ranging from strategic & foreign affairs to safety of women and citizen responsibility. Gul Panag married her childhood friend Rishi in 2011. Since Panag is a lover of motorbikes, her marriage procession consisted of 20 motorcycle riders that included female riders as well and her 62 years old Aunt.Gul panag ran at the Delhi Half Marathon in November 2010 but she complained of eve teasing by male runners. She later made a sweeping statement that Delhi was unsafe for women and the males of the city need to change their attitude towards females.In 2007 she won the Screen Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for Dor. In the same year, Zee Cine Critics Award was bestowed upon her for Best Actress for Dor. Gul Panag sounds passionate about politics and promises to come up with out of the box solutions for people's problems but her fate will be finally decided by voters of Chandigarh on 30th April 2014.