It’s because the people asked her to – and she just couldn’t disappoint them.

“I have been virtually mobbed by people demanding I should fight the elections,” Bollywood actor Rakhi Sawant was quoted as saying. “So here I am.”

Thirty-six-year-old Sawant, who is contesting the 2014 Lok Sabha elections as a candidate for her newly formed Rashtriya Aam Party, will fight it out from the Mumbai North-West constituency. Her opponents? Congress’s Gurudas Kamat, Shiv Sena’s Gajanan Kirtikar, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena’s  Mahesh Manjrekar and Samajwadi Party’s Kamaal R Khan.

The actor said she was offered a ticket by the BJP to contest from Srirampur in West Bengal, but chose to stand from Mumbai. Why? Because she speaks Hindi and Marathi, Sawant said, not Bengali — and also because she lives right here in Mumbai.

Curiously, Sawant has declared she is illiterate — although she attended the Goklibai High School in the Mumbai suburb of Vile Parle, and later the Mithibai College, also in Mumbai.

Sawant’s entry into politics has raised many eyebrows. The ‘item girl’ image from her Bollywood career and a series of controversial — some say bizarre — statements have not helped build her case as a serious politician. Nor has her attempt to promote her party symbol, a green chilli, by wearing an all-green attire.

That said, you have to credit her for making an attempt to stand up for what she believes in. Sawant says she will give her last drop of blood to serve the “dukhi janta“.

At the end of the day, entering politics requires guts. Entering politics as the lone candidate of a party that you formed yourself requires even more guts. So leave Sawant alone, will you?

This story was also published on WoNoBo.com, our media partner.