BJP to flex star muscle to attract votes, big names to campaign

NEW DELHI: Chief ministers of BJP-ruled states and senior party leaders will campaign in the city to garner support for the party in the Lok Sabha elections. Delhi BJP has submitted a list of 43 star campaigners to Delhi Election Commission. However, this time, the glam quotient will be low as many of BJP's celebrity campaigners are also contesting elections.

"We have asked CMs of BJP-ruled states, especially those where elections were held along with Delhi, to campaign here," said V K Malhotra, incharge the campaign committee, Delhi BJP.

Rajasthan CM Vasundhara Raje, Chattisgarh CM Raman Singh and Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chauhan are expected to campaign in Delhi. Sources say most of these leaders will campaign during the last few days before the polling day. At present, the party doesn't have any MP from Delhi.

Senior leaders who will campaign include L K Advani, Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley, Ravi Shankar Prasad, BJP president Rajnath Singh and Delhi election incharge Nitin Gadkari.

To boost its chances in west Delhi, which has a sizable population of Sikh voters, the party has invited Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal) supremo Prakash Singh Badal to campaign.

This time many of its celebrity campaigners like Shatrugun Sinha, Hema Malini, Kirron Kher will be missing in action. However, the party has managed to get a few celebrities like BJP vice-president Smriti Irani, Navjot Singh Sidhu, Vani Tripathi, Uma Bharti, Anup Jalota and Vinod Khanna.

While BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi will hold a rally on March 26, the party plans to hold two more rallies closer to polling day.