(From top) Sanjay Dutt at the birthplace of his mother Nargis in Calcutta. Hema Malini in Darjeeling and Jaya Bachchan in Howrah. Pictures by Pabitra Das and Suman Tamang

April 26: Sanjay Dutt may have lost some support of his family since taking the political plunge but the campaign trail today took him to his mother’s long-forgotten birthplace in Calcutta.

This morning, in a 10ft by 12ft room behind what used to be Lotus cinema, the actor stood in silence for several minutes, “quietly thinking” about his mother.

Nargis was born in Calcutta at 8 Indian Mirror Street near Wellington Square in 1929.

Sanjay had been in the city before — for far longer periods than what his chopper-stopping schedule allowed today — but never did he make it to the crumbling two-storey building occupied by several families now.

“It was a very emotional moment for me. I was alone in the room for 10 minutes,” Sanjay said, climbing down the stairs. “I was quietly thinking of my mother.”

The actor sounded less like the election campaigner mouthing one-liners from his films than a long-lost mother’s child.

When Sanjay firmed up his ties with the Samajwadi Party earlier this year, it almost snatched his sisters away from him. Priya, a Congress MP from their late father’s constituency, said she was “shocked” by his decision. His marriage to fringe actor Maanyata last year had also apparently not gone down well with the rest of the family.

Mumbai has been abuzz with speculation on whether Sanjay would campaign for Priya, but he hasn’t yet. The two live in flats opposite each other, but sources said “they stay out of each others hair”.

From Birbhum to Krishnagar to Howrah, the cheering hordes saw politician Sanjay, not the person, though he said: “Mujhe politics nahi karna, main Gandhigiri karne aya hoon (I’m not into politics; I’m here for Gandhigiri).”

In Krishnagar, he promised to sum up the “situation of Bengal” with a line from Lage Raho Munnabhai. “If there’s a tap there’s no water, if there’s a bulb there’s no power, if there’s a hospital it has no bed and if there’s a bed, there’s no doctor. There are fewer cars on the road because the potholes are so many.”

Sanjay was not the only Bollywood actor campaigning in Bengal today. Jaya Bachchan and Hema Malini were there, too. Jaya is Sanjay’s Samajwadi colleague; Hema is among their rivals.

In Birbhum’s Nalhati, about 300km from Calcutta, some 5,000 people who had been waiting for over three hours for a glimpse of Sanjay and Jaya pelted an empty dais with stones. The stars arrived after police wielded the baton to silence the crowd.

Sanjay got the people back in the mood by equating them with his screen sidekick. “Circuit ke saath hum dushman ko short circuit kar denge (Together, we’ll short-circuit our enemies).”

In Darjeeling, Hema was doing a Sholay, trying to cha-tterbox her way into voters’ hearts.

“Chal Dhanno (her horse in the film), aaj teri Basanti ki izzat ka sawal hai, aaj Jaswant Singh ko jitana hai aur Gorkhaland banana hai (Come Dhanno, my honour is at stake, we have to ensure Jaswant Singh’s victory, we have to build Gorkhaland),” she told a gathering in the heart of Darjeeling town.

“I too want Gorkhaland,” said Singh, the BJP candidate from Darjeeling.