Sunny Deol lent more star power to the BJP when the Bollywood actor joined the saffron party on Tuesday amid speculation that he may be fielded from Gurdaspur or Chandigarh in the ongoing Lok Sabha elections.

Deol, whose step-mother Hema Malini is also a BJP leader and is contesting from Mathura, joined the BJP in the presence of defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman and railway minister Piyush Goyal.

Speculation of the Gadar star taking the political plunge had been doing the rounds since last week when Deol met BJP president Amit Shah at Pune airport.

"The way my father (film star Dharmendra) was attached with Atalji, today I have come to join Modiji… Whatever I can do for this family (BJP), I will do it... I won't talk, I will show you through my work," Deol said.

Gurdaspur Lok Sabha seat in Punjab was represented by the late Vinod Khanna from the BJP. Sources say that his family is not too keen on contesting the election.

"The moment we got to know that he is coming to the party, I can only relate to the film Border he had made, post which the impact on the Indian audience of such a theme was really proven... The feeling of nationalism and patriotism, when so beautifully evoked through a film, can really touch the core of Indian citizen," Sitharaman said.

Deol started his acting career with Betaab (1983) and went on to deliver blockbuster hits such as Ghayal, Damini, Border and Gadar.

His successful run at the box office faltered after the noughties, with the angry young man moving to comedies like Yamla Pagla Deewana, co-starring his father Dharmendra and brother Bobby Deol.