PM Modi, Shah, Adityanath, Rahul to raise political heat

SHIMLA: Amidst the intensifying war of words, Himachal is all set to witness high octane electioneering in the coming days. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and All India Congress Committee (AICC) vice-president Rahul Gandhi will address a series of rallies in four parliamentary constituencies across state.

Vying to regain power, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is seemingly banking upon PM Modi to gain electoral grounds in the Congress-ruled state.

The party has planned four public meetings at Mandi, Shimla, Kangra and Hamirpur parliamentary segment, respectively.

The state unit of BJP has been working overtime, and has asked the central leadership to hold rallies in the state with Uttarakhand CM Trivendra Singh Rawat, Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar, Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath, and Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan.

“There is high demand for PM Modi in the state, but due to his busy schedule, he will hold only a few rallies in Himachal,” said senior BJP leader and chairman of campaign committee, Parveen Sharma.

The rallies have been planned in Mandi, Palampur and Solan parliamentary segment. The PM has already addressed a rally at Bilaspur’s Luhnu Ground.

Apart from PM Modi, the party has planned 17 rallies of it’s national president Amit Shah. The party’s list of star campaigners includes PM Modi, Shah, Union home minister Rajnath Singh, Union finance minister Arun Jaitley, Union road and transport minister Nitin Gadkari, external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj, organisational general secretary Ram Lal, Union health Minister JP Nadda, Union social justice and empowerment minister Thawar Chand Gehlot, Union textile minister Smriti Irani, and Union drinking water and sanitation minister Uma Bharti.

From Congress, chief minister Virbhadra Singh, who heads the campaign committee has been campaigning throughout the state.

Rahul Gandhi, Anand Sharma and Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh will also be campaigning in Himachal. Besides them, chief minister Virbhadra and state party chief Sukhvinder Sukhu will address a series of rallies,” said Congress general secretary Naresh Chauhan. The Congress is yet to announce its list of star campaigners.