Cong seeks Salman Khan's help to capture BJP's Indore citadel

The Madhya Pradesh Congress has requested Bollywood megastar Salman Khan to breach the BJP's Indore citadel in the ensuing Lok Sabha polls.

The actor was born in Indore's Palasia area in 1965 and has spent a substantial part of his childhood in that city before moving to Mumbai.

"Our leaders have already talked to Salman Khan to campaign for us in Indore. We are sure the actor would campaign for us," MP Congress spokesperson Pankaj Chaturvedi said.

Indore, Madhya Pradesh's largest city and commercial capital, has been in the iron grip of the BJP ever since current Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan defeated former chief minister and senior Congressman Prakash Chandra Sethi in 1989.

Sethi, a one-time lieutenant of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, was the sitting MP at the time but lost to Mahajan by over 1.11 lakh votes.

Eight-time MP Mahajan, affectionately called 'Tai' (sister), has retained the seat since then and the BJP has also had a sizable share of victories in the district's eight Assembly constituencies.

Khan is a huge crowd-puller and his contribution in the Congress' poll campaign would change the party's fortune in Indore, Chaturvedi asserted.

"He spent his childhood in Indore. His grandfather was a senior police officer there," Chaturvedi said.

The actor, who generally keeps way from politics, had campaigned and participated in a road show for the Congress' Indore mayoral candidate Pankaj Sanghavi in 2009.

However, the move did not pay off as senior BJP leader Krishna Murari Moghe managed to defeat Sanghavi at the time.