Ravi Kishan sweeps a portion of Gandhi Maidan with his fans on Friday. Picture by Ranjeet Kumar Dey

Bhojpuri actor Ravi Kishan, who contested the Lok Sabha elections on a Congress ticket, was seen spreading Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Swach Bharat message in Patna.

Kishan was seen wielding a broom and cleaning up part of Gandhi Maidan near Ramgoolam Chowk. The actor arrived on Thursday to attend a private function. He appeared supportive of the cleanliness drive Modi launched on October 2 to make Clean India a mass movement.

Asked how he, being from the Congress, was supporting the BJP’s drive, Kishan said: “It’s not about being a Congress person or a BJP person. I am just supporting the social cause dealing with cleanliness. Everyone wants to live in a clean society. It really hurt me when the high court recently called Patna the dirtiest capital. I took it as my duty to send a message to people that cleanliness was godliness and nothing could be better than the Swach Bharat mission.”

Three Bhojpuri actors contested the 2014 Lok Sabha elections — Ravi Kishan from Jaunpur (Congress), Manoj Tiwari (BJP) from Northeast Delhi and Kunal Singh (Congress) from Patna Sahib parliamentary seat. Both Congress candidates lost. Kishan lost to Krishna Pratap and Kunal to Shatrughan Sinha.

Asked if he was planning to quit the Congress and join the BJP, Kishan said: “I do not think that everything should be connected to politics. At present I am not thinking about politics. It was my wish to be part of this cleanliness drive. But supporting an idea does not mean I support the person as well. People should not cook up their own stories.”

Since losing, Kishan has focused on films. He recently launched his own production house, Ravi Kishan Production and Megha’s, in Mumbai. He is working on over 10 projects, in Hindi and Bhojpuri. The Bhojpuri projects include Global Baba, Baazigar and Pandit Ji Batai Na Biyaah Kab Hoi 2.

“If Patna becomes a clean city, it would attract more visitors and tourists. The city would automatically become one of the cleanest cities if residents decide to keep their respective areas clean,” Kishan said.

Since Modi launched the cleanliness drive, several BJP leaders in Bihar, including Union law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and Shatrughan Sinha, have picked up the broom. However, Friday’s drive was organised by an NGO, Ashaanjali Sanstha. “I had asked Raviji to take part in the drive to send a message to residents and he accepted gladly,” NGO president Ranjan Sinha said.