For many, the instant recall of Dharmendra may be a ‘He Man’, or a ‘Dharam Garam’ but in the lingering memory, the actor comes across as a kind hearted, genial, affable gentleman. Spread over 250 films and five decades, Dharmendra perhaps never rose to be a super star in league of Dilip Kumar, Amitabh Bachchan, Rajesh Khanna or a Shah Rukh Khan, but he occupied number two and three slots enduringly traversing multiple genres such as drama, romance, action and comedy.

The house of Deols holds a unique record of spending maximum time in Parliament, much more than Dutts, Bachchans in the abhinetas-turn-netas category. Bachchans have had three parliamentarians — poet Harivanshrai, Amitabh and Jaya Bachchan but only one from the Lok sabha. Dutts have had three — Sunil Dutt, Nargis and Priya Dutt, two from the Lok Sabha. The House of Deol holds a record of sending three parliamentarians, all directly elected to the Lok Sabha, though Hema had stints in Rajya Sabha too. Hema’s eternal ‘dream girl’ persona had made her electoral victories possible, with a little help, of course, from Dharmendra’s Jat identity which mattered a lot in her parliamentary constituency of Mathura.

In politics, however, Dharmendra remained a tad misfit and unconventional parliamentarian.

In 2004 he was elected to Lok Sabha from Bikaner. However, Dharmendra did not enjoy the prospect of being a mere MP and throughout his five-year tenure, he hardly ever attended Parliament. He had no interest in the BJP either. Speaking from Bikaner to a news channel on 17 April 2004 in response to Congress leader Naval Kishore Sharma’s allegation that the actor had not mentioned the assets owned by Hema Malini in the affidavit submitted while filing nomination papers from Bikaner Lok Sabha, Dharmendra declared that he didn’t “know anything about the BJP’s political philosophy" and added for good measure, “All I know is that if I were to be dictator for five years, I would clear up this mess".

The BJP was quick to defend his comments. The BJP’s then spokesman Prakash Javdekar had told Rediff, “What is wrong with this kind of statement? Balasaheb Thackeray has been making similar statements for several years."

Dharmendra acknowledged before voters in Bikaner that........

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