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BJP sends entire central cabinet, Congress waits for Sonia and Rahul

The BJP has taken its campaign to the level of that in the Lok Sabha elections, with a meticulous plan constituency by constituency.

Vasundhara Raje in Mumbai Tuesday. Source: Dilip Kagda

Narendra Modi has 23 rallies in 15 days across Maharashtra. Sonia Gandhi will have six rallies (on October 9 and 11), Rahul Gandhi two. The BJP has sent or will send more than 100 central leaders including union ministers; the Congress is banking largely on Maharashtra leaders Prithviraj Chavan, Ashok Chavan, and Narayan Rane.

The BJP has taken its campaign to the level of that in the Lok Sabha elections, with a meticulous plan constituency by constituency. “The BJP has built the tempo and will get in more national leaders to sustain it,” said BJP spokesperson Keshav Upadhyay. All star campaigners in the list submitted to Election Commission will participate in the campaign, he said.

Union ministers Sushma Swaraj, Rajnath Singh, Nirmala Sitaraman and Smriti Irani have have already participated in the campaign. Radhamohan Singh, Venkaiah Naidu and Uma Bharti too are part of the line-up.

Union ministers from Maharashtra such as Nitin Gadkari, Prakash Javadekar and Raosaheb Danve have been asked to camp the state throughout the campaign. Javadekar has set up base at BJP headquarters in Mumbai and is moving around constituencies in Pune, Nashik and within Mumbai; Gadkari is campaigning across the state.

Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar is holding interactive sessions with youth and also small public meetings. Several ministers from Goa have been asked to reach Mumbai. Parrikar and Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje Scindia have addressed rallies in Pune and Mumbai.

“We have pooled manpower from Chhattisgarh and MP to put up a mega campaign. MP Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan and Gujarat Chief Minister Anandiben Patel too have been assigned tasks,” a party leader said.

A team gives inputs on the requirements in every seat. BJP president Amit Shah, who is drawing up strategies, is on the field, holding public meetings . He has held meetings in Beed, Lonavala, Pune and Kolhapur. State BJP president Devendra Fadnavis, contesting from Nagpur Southwest, is touring the state.

The only national leader the Congress has brought so far is Anand Sharma. Besides Sonia and Rahul, its list of star campaigners has Manmohan Singh, Mallikarjun Kharge, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Digvijaya Singh, C P Joshi, Ashok Gehlot, Siddaramaiah, Kamal Nath and Jyotiraditya Scindia. State party campaigners besides Ashok Chavan, Prithviraj Chavan and Rane are Manikrao Thakre in Vidarbha and Sushil Kumar Shinde in Solapur.

“I have been getting demands from candidates to get star campaigners,” said Congress spokesperson Anant Gadgil.

Incidentally, one of the Congress campaign coordinators, Basavraj Patil Nagralkar, joined the NCP.

Among other parties, the NCP is banking on party president Sharad Pawar to shoulder the responsibility against the Modi campaign. Other campaigners include Ajit Pawar and state party president Sunil Tatkare.

The Shiv Sena is banking entirely on Uddhav Thackeray and his son Aditya. And the MNS has always had Raj Thackeray alone.

First uploaded on: 08-10-2014 at 00:51 IST

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