‘I Want to Continue Being Modi’

Vikas Mahante, the Modi double, wants the BJP to hire him as a permanent lookalike

The shelf life of a politician’s lookalike, suddenly discovered on the campaign trail, lasts only till the length of the election season. After which he must return to his earlier life. But Vikas Mahante, whose striking resemblance to Narendra Modi earned him sudden fame, has no intention of doing that.

Mahante, who runs a packaging business in the distant Mumbai suburb Vasai, and has two sons, campaigned for various leaders of the Shiv Sena and BJP as a Modi look- alike. Most of these rallies took place in Mumbai, but he was also called upon to campaign for the BJP in Gujarat and Amritsar, where he was the star attraction at a public meeting addressed by Arun Jaitley. He says that he has found a new calling by impersonating Modi. “I don’t want to go back and become obsolete again. I want to continue being Modi.”

The 52-year-old businessman claims he will ask the BJP to hire him as a party worker. “I have realised that party workers and supporters become reinvigorated when they see me. Even the voters, they feel they are having an audience with Modi. BJP can use these qualities,” he says.

Mahante arrived at his Modi impersonation by accident, he says. Around two years ago, he started growing a beard to try out a new look. When people started pointing out his similarity with the leader, he started wearing a pair of rimless glasses and got a shorter haircut to look more like him. During a Holi party organised by a Maharashtrian filmmaker he is acquainted with, some Shiv Sena leaders saw him and asked him to campaign for them.

Last year, on learning of the resemblance, Modi asked Mahante to visit him in Gandhinagar, the capital of Gujarat. “He stared at me for a while and asked how I would do prachaar (preach, or, in the Sangh lexicon, spread the message),” says Mahante, “He seemed to be very impressed by what he heard.”

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Lhendup G Bhutia

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