A former swimwear model in India has caused uproar by campaigning for a legislative seat in the country’s most populated state, Uttar Pradesh.
Archana Gautam, 26, won Miss Bikini India in 2018 starting off her acting career. She is also a journalism graduate and has appeared in a handful of Bollywood films including Baaraat Company and Haseena Parkar.
Gautam goes against the grain of traditional female political candidates and has a warning for her critics who use her modelling background to attack her.
Former actress and political candidate archana gautam
“To people who are abusing and making vulgar statements about me, I want to say that I have two professional lives and they are both different from each other. I would like them to not mix the two,” Gautam told local reporters.
“No one has the right to judge my character on the basis of my clothes,” she added.
Gautam is a candidate for the Congress Party in elections in Uttar Pradesh with 50 other women, where 125 seats are being contested.
After her candidacy was announced right-wing Hindu groups circulated images of her in revealing outfits, calling them “obscene”.
“She is a lady who displays her body publicly and it is unseemly and unacceptable,” Abhishek Agarwal, leader of the Hindu Mahasabha party, said.
Supriya Shrinate, a Congress Party spokeswoman, defended Gautam. “She deserves our respect just like any other woman does. Those who are making derogatory remarks against her are only displaying their anti-women stance,” she said.