The Samajwadi Party (SP) has announced it will field actor Sanjay Dutt for the Lucknow Lok Sabha seat. However, whether Dutt actually contests will depend on the view the Supreme Court takes of his appeal against his conviction and six-year jail term for illegal possession of an AK-56 rifle and a 9 mm pistol.

The Supreme Court had on August 20, 2007 stayed the operation of the sentence, and granted Dutt interim bail. The final order is pending.

Lucknow is represented in the current Lok Sabha by former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Announcing Dutt’s candidature, SP general secretary Amar Singh said the movie

star would seek the court’s permission to contest.

“Some Congress leaders have pointed out that he may not get permission... But, I would like to point out that the way the BJP got a cricketer (Navjot Singh Sidhu) to contest elections, the Congress being the ruling party should try to make a similar attempt,” Singh said. The Congress and SP are allies in the UPA.

Sidhu, sentenced to three years in prison by the Punjab and Haryana High Court, which found him guilty of culpable homicide not amounting to murder, was successful in his plea before the apex court, which stayed both the conviction and the sentence. This allowed Sidhu to contest and win back the Amritsar seat that had fallen vacant after he resigned from the Lok Sabha in the wake of the High Court order.