Dharmadhikari had contested the last elections in February 1998, also as an independent. Patekar will meet Dharmadhikari on August 10 in Pune. From there, Patekar is scheduled to go to Kupwara in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), where he will reprise the role of the army officer he essayed in Prahaar.

In the last polls, Patekar had supported Pune strongman Suresh Kalmadi. He said he threw in his lot with Dharmadhikari this year because the former IAS officer's poll plank includes an issue close to his heart: the abolition of Article 370 of the Indian Constitution. The article confers J&K with special status wherebycitizens from outside any other state in the country cannot lawfully settle down or own property there.

``Our independence is 50 years old now. Articles like this one (370) need to be done away with as soon as possible. How long are we going to treat any one state of India differently from the rest of the nation? And it's not just J&K, why are Himachal Pradesh and several other states in north-east India being given special treatment? Enough is enough,'' declared Patekar. The star of such films like Ankush, Krantiveer, Agnisakshi and the yet-to-be-released Kohraam said he was studying the article at the moment so that he would not err ``while speaking about the issue at rallies''.

Patekar, who was conferred the honorary title of `major' after he was took intensive training for his film Prahaar at Khadakvasla, has wound up most of his Bollywood commitments. Dharmadhikari's campaign is to take off on August 18 after the Election Commission of India allots him an electionsymbol.

Dharmadhikari had stepped into the eye of the storm with his much publicised resignation from the post of the then Chief Minister Manohar Joshi's personal secretary. He had then taken the plunge in politics. ``Nana and I have been friends for the last 15 to 20 years when both of us were activists. His presence in the campaign is of course going to make a major difference to my poll prospects,'' Dharmadhikari told Express Newsline in a telephonic conversation from Pune. ``Article 370 is a temporary provision which can be done away with. Pakistani infiltrators have often crossed the border over to our side when our own people are prohibited from settling there,'' he added.