Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address nine public rallies, while BKP national president Amit Shah will hold 18 rallies during the 15-day long campaign for the Maharashtra Assembly polls scheduled for October 21.
Announcing this on Sunday, Maharashtra BJP president Chandrakant Patil said: “Since the Prime Minister will also be addressing rallies in Assembly poll-bound Haryana as well, he has agreed to address nine public rallies during the campaign period in Maharashtra”.
Of the total rallies, Modi will address two elections in Satara and Pune on October 17. “We are looking for a venue for the Prime Minister’s rally in Pune,” Patil said.
At Satara, Modi will address the public rally for Udayanraje Bhosale, 13th direct descendant of Chhatrapati Shivaji, who quit the NCP and joined the BJP on September 14, and other party candidates in the district. In Pune, he will campaign for State BJP president Chandrakant Patil, who is contesting from the Brahmin-dominated Kothurd constituency, and other party candidates.
Patil said that the BJP had not finalised dates and venues for Shah’s election rallies in Maharashtra. “He will in all address 18 public rallies in the state. We would like him to address rallies in all the regions of the state,” the State BJP chief said.
The BJP is miles ahead of the Opposition parties in its campaign. On his part, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis – who is leading the ruling BJP-Shiv Sena alliance into the Assembly polls –has criss-crossed the State as part of his 4000 km-long campaign tour ‘Mahajanadesh Yatra’.
Besides Modi and Shah, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, party’s working president J P Nadda, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Union Ministers like Nitin Gadkari, Piyush Goyal, Prakash Javadekar, Smruti Irani, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Purushottam K. Rupala, Raosaheb Patil-Danve and G. Kisan Reddy will be among other key campaigners for the BJP in the State Assembly polls
Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani, Karnataka’s deputy Chief Minister Laxman Savadi, his counterpart from Uttar Pradesh Keshavprasad Maurya, BJP’s Vice-President Vasundhara Raje Scindia, key functionaries like V Satish, Saroj Pandey, Bhupendra Yadav will be other key campaigners.