Rakhi Sawant to contest LS polls from Mumbai

The Lok Sabha election in Mumbai North-West constituency will get a dose of glamour with the entry of Bollywood item girl Rakhi Sawant as an Independent candidate.

"I have been virtually mobbed by people demanding that I should fight the election, so here I am," Sawant told media persons here Wednesday.

She will lock horns with Congress's former union minister and party general secretary Gurudas Kamat and Shiv Sena's Gajanan Kirtikar.

Others in the fray are Bollywood actor-director Mahesh Manjrekar of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, producer-actor Kamaal R. Khan of the Samajwadi Party and Mayank Gandhi of the Aam Aadmi Party.

Sawant had recently called on the Bharatiya Janata Party's top leadership in New Delhi and expressed her admiration for its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi.

"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.

"Please give me one chance and see what I can do," the actress urged.

Sawant said she was leaving the film industry for the cause of the people and would take up cudgels for women for dignity and respect in society.

Sawant was attired in a green outfit and covered her head with a scarf as she posed for media persons.