Amritsar, Apr 29 (IANS): Actor-turned-politician Sunny Deol, the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) candidate for the Gurdaspur parliamentary seat, on Monday offered prayers at the Golden Temple here ahead of filing his nomination papers.

Sporting a blue turban and a blue shirt, Deol, who himself is a Sikh, entered the shrine complex with folded hands, accompanied by his supporters. He offered prayers at the 'Harmandir Sahib', the sanctum sanctorum.

Following the visit, Deol, 62, later left for Gurdaspur where he will file his nomination papers.

His father, veteran actor Dharmendra and actor brother Bobby Deol are likely to be present during the filing.

Sunny Deol, who has starred in blockbuster movies like "Border", "Betaab", "Gadar - Ek Prem Katha", "Ghayal" and others, faces tough competition from Congress candidate and sitting MP Sunil Jakhar, who is the Punjab Congress president.

Earlier, actor Vinod Khanna won the Gurdaspur seat four times in 1998, 1999, 2004 and 2014.

Khanna died in April 2017 while he was still the sitting MP.

Following his death, the BJP chose Swarn Singh Salariya, a Mumbai-based millionaire businessman,as the party candidate for the October 2017 by-election, over Kavita Khanna, the widow of Vinod Khanna.

Salariya lost to Congress candidate Sunil Jakhar by over 1.93 lakh votes.