With the completion of selection of candidates in all constituencies by the national parties Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress, strategists of both the parties are drawing a roadmap for election campaign by the top guns
The nomination of candidates will end on Friday and elections would be held on October 21.
Sources in the BJP said that as per the plan, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to address at least four rallies. Party president and union home minister Amit Shah will address around half a dozen rallies across the state. Date and venues of the rallies have not been decided so far, they added.
“As people like to hear PM Modi and home minister Shah so we are approaching them to visit State for rallies. Party has set the target of 75+ seats in the assembly and their rallies will help the party to achieve the set target,” a BJP leader said. Several other senior party leaders too will hit the campaign trail.
Modi had addressed the people at Vijay Sankalp rally in Rohtak on September 8 while Shah in Jind on August 16.
BJP's working President JP Nadda visited the State in recent days to assess the ground situation. Union Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani addressed a public rally in Tohana during nomination of BJP state president Subhash Barala on Thursday.
Sources said that BJP President Amit Shah chaired the closed door meeting with the leaders of Haryana at party headquarters in New Delhi on Wednesday. Narendra Singh Tomar, who is election in-charge of Haryana, was also present along with BJP's working president JP Nadda. BJP leaders discussed campaign plan ahead of the polls. Issues that should be raised during the campaign were also discussed upon during the meet.
Sources in the Congress Party said that after clearance of names of candidates for 90 Assembly seats by Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi, senior leaders had approached her and other senior Congress leaders for rallies in Haryana. Gandhi has been asked to address at least two rallies in the State, they added.
Congress, which has been in power from 2005 to 2014, faces a tough challenge from BJP which ruled the State from 2014 to 2019 and recent BJP’s Lok Sabha clean sweep victory, The party is struggling to keep its stronghold intact in many constituencies of the State. In the 2014 Assembly elections, the Congress won only 15 seats with the BJP cruising to a majority at 47.
Congress appears to be a divided house with the two factions of former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Ashok Tanwar fighting a bitter turf war. Senior Congress leader and state Congress election campaign committee chairman Capt Ajay Yadav has recently accused the party’s screening committee of neglecting old workers of the party in ticket allotment for Assembly election.
The Congress Interim President in September removed Ashok Tanwar and appointed Kumari Selja as the PCC President. Legislature party leader Kiran Chowdhry was also removed and Hooda was appointed CLP leader.
Sources said that after becoming interim president of the party, Sonia Gandhi seems to be getting ready to plunge into the election campaign with a heavily packed campaign schedule in Haryana and Maharashtra. Priyanka Gandhi too is likely to address rally in Haryana while former Congress president Rahul Gandhi who had not attended party meeting during Election Committee meeting for the selection of candidates for Haryana may be missing from the election scene.
Congress general secretary and Haryana in-charge Ghulam Nabi Azad too will address the public rallies in the State. Moreover, Sources in Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) said that they have approached Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to address the rallies in the State.