Manmohan, Sidhu, Capt among 40 Congress star campaigners
NEW DELHI: Congress president Sonia Gandhi, former party chief Rahul Gandhi and general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra are among the party’s list of 40 star campaigners for the upcoming Delhi assembly polls.
Former Punjab minister Navjot Singh Sidhu and actorturned-politician Shatrughan Sinha are also among the top campaigners for the polls. Both Sidhu and Sinha, who have earlier been with the BJP, have been roped in for the campaign in a bid to woo Punjabi and Purvanchali voters in the national capital.
Former prime minister Manmohan Singh as well as chief ministers of Congress-ruled states — Capt Amarinder Singh (Punjab), Ashok Gehlot (Rajasthan), Kamal Nath (Madhya Pradesh), Bhupesh Baghel (Chhattisgarh) and V Narayanasamy (Puducherry) — also figure in the Congress’ list of star campaigners that has been sent to the Election Commission by the party.
The Congress has announced names of 66 candidates so far for the election to the 70-member Delhi assembly and it is likely to leave four seats for its ally RJD.
Congress’ Delhi unit chief Subhash Chopra, campaign committee chief Kirti Azad, AICC in-charge of Delhi PC Chacko and NSUI chief Neeraj Kundan, will also campaign for various candidates in the highstakes poll battle.
Former chief ministers Harish Rawat and Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Rajasthan deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot, general secretary Jyotiraditya Scindia, senior leaders Kapil Sibal and Ghulam Nabi Azad, are also among the star campaigners.
Former Union minister Shashi Tharoor, who has been aggressively taking on the AAP and had launched the party’s campaign in Delhi, will also canvass for various candidates for the party.
The Congress is seeking to revive its fortunes in the national capital this time. It had won just eight seats in 2013 and drew a blank in the 2015 Delhi Assembly polls.
NEW DELHI: The BJP on Wednesday released its list of star campaigners for the upcoming Delhi polls, featuring Bollywood star Sunny Deol and party’s biggest crowd-puller Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Apart from Modi, Union home minister Amit Shah, BJP president JP Nadda, defence minister Rajnath Singh, road transport minister Nitin Gadkari and ABVP’S general secretary (organisation) BL Santosh are among 40 star campaigners of the party.
Some of the inclusions are very tactical like that of Union minister Smriti Irani. Her ability to flawlessly converse in Bengali can be used by the party during its campaign amid a sizeable Bengali community in the national capital. Santosh’s southern origin is expected to be used in areas like Karol Bagh and Mayur Vihar where there is a sizable presence of south Indians.
Similarly, Manoj Tiwari, who is not just Delhi BJP chief, but a popular Bhojpuri singer and actor along with Ravi Kishen, are there to woo the significant Purvanchali voters who hail from Bihar and Eastern Uttar Pradesh. Tiwari’s popularity transcended the Bhojpuri industry when he sang ‘Jiya Ho Bihar Ke Lala Jiya Tu Haazar Sala’ in popular Bollywood movie ‘Gangs of Wasseypur’. BJP wishes to milk this to the hilt.
Sunny Deol, the BJP MP known for his “ye dhai kilo ka haath” dialogue that many expected from him during Lok Sabha campaign in Punjab’s Gurdaspur, is also included in the list. So is yesteryear’s star Hema Malini, who is a BJP MP from Mathura.
Then there is a “pahadi” community that has made Delhi their home for long. While BJP’S new president Nadda is being projected as their own man, Himachal Pradesh chief minister Jairam Thakur, his protégé, former Uttarakhand CM Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank and Anurag Thakur will be called in.
All seven BJP MPS from Delhi will be extensively campaigning in constituencies that fall under their Lok Sabha jurisdiction.