At a glance: Rakhi Sawant's journey from 'item girl' to 'aspiring MP'

New Delhi: Every election witnesses Bollywood artists plunging into electoral politics.While some of them are serious players with a clear agenda of establishing themselves as the leaders in the political arena like MGR, NTR and Jayalalithaa, some of them just want to encash their popularity and secure a seat for themselves in the parliament of India.There is a third category as well and it consists of people who want to use it for making media headlines. Rakhi Sawant perhaps belongs to this category.The ‘Bollywood item girl' has announced that she will be contesting the upcoming parliamentary elections from Mumbai North-West LS constituency as an independent candidate.Interestingly, If Rakhi has to be believed, she has decided to jump into electoral politics on popular public demand."I have been virtually mobbed by people demanding that I should fight the election, so here I am," said Rakhi Sawant while explaining the reason behind her decision.Rakhi sawant will be challenging former union minister and Congress party general secretary Gurudas Kamat and Shiv Sena's Gajanan Kirtikar from Mumbai North West constituency.Rakhi Sawant said that the BJP had offered her ticket from West Bengal but she turned down the offer as she doesn't know the local language of West Bengal."I was offered a BJP ticket from Srirampur in West Bengal. But I am from Mumbai and known Hindi and Marathi. I don't know the local language of West Bengal, so why should I stand from there?" she said.Explaing her decision, Rakhi further said, "I don't know how to play politics. I am here to solve the problems of common man. My aim is to do good work for the society. I am not striving to become a politician. People want me to fight the election and hence I am here.""I have been doing a lot of social work for the last seven years. My aim is to bring back women's safety. I don't want Mumbai to become like Delhi. I want to arrange self-defence and karate classes for women so that they can protect themselves," Rakhi added.Rakhi was born as Niru Bheda to Jaya Bheda and Anandi Sawant,a police constable at Worli Police Station, on 25 November 1978. She is the sister of film director Rakesh Sawant and former actress Usha Sawant.Rakhi Sawant made her film debut in Agnnichakr under the name Ruhi Sawant. After that she low-budget Bollywood films Joru Ka Ghulam, Jis Desh Mein Ganga Rehta Hain and Yeh Raaste Hain Pyaar Ke.In 2005, she appeared in the music video "Pardesia" of music album D.J. Hot Remix - Vol 3 and gained popularity for her dancing abilities.After this, she featured in music videos of many other music albums and Bollywood item numbers.Rakhi Sawant loves to be in news and does not mind even negative publicity.In June 2006, Mika Singh attempted to kiss her at his birthday party, which caused a media controversy.A few months later, she appeared in the first season of the reality show Bigg Boss and was among the top four finalists.Sawant launched the reality show Rakhi Ka Swayamwar in which she planned to select her future husband by the ancient ritual of Swayamvar.On 2 August 2009 she chose her life partner, a contestant from Toronto, Canada, Elesh Parujanwala.However, several months later, Sawant announced that they had separated due to irreconcilable differences.