With the announcement of dates for the Gujarat Assembly elections, top national leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress president Sonia Gandhi, vice-president Rahul Gandhi and others from different political outfits, are set to make beeline in the State for poll campaign from November.
Star campaigner for the ruling BJP would be PM Modi who will address not less than 50 public meetings in the different parts of Gujarat in the next 40 odd days. He will begin his poll campaign from next Thursday. Though the Prime Minister is visiting the State capital Gandhinagar to attend a function at Akshardham temple on November 2, he will start electioneering only after the nominations of candidates, informed a senior BJP leader.
‘’Apart from Modi, BJP’s president Amit Shah is expected to camp in the poll bound state after 15th November. Shah too will roam around the State and address large number of gatherings,’’ he said.
Talking to The Pioneer BJP’s spokesman for the 2017 Assembly polls and former Gujarat Minister IK Jadeja said Union Ministers, Chief Ministers of BJP-ruled States and leaders of alliance partners in National Democratic Alliance (NDA) would also come. Final list of all the national level leaders would come in coming days, added Jadeja.
As far as Opposition Congress is concern, besides Sonia and Rahul, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, former Finance Minister P Chidambaram and others will also visit the State for campagin. In fact, Rahul, Singh and Chidambaram are visiting the State in the first week of November. Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee general secretary and spokesman Nisith Vyas said it was yet to decide how often the top party leaders would come but the AICC will submit a list of leaders, who will make political visit to the State, to the Election Commission soon.
Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) supremo Arvind Kejriwal too will visit the State as his party has already announced a list of candidates for 11 Assembly constituencies. Apart from Kejriwal, his deputy Manish Sisodia will also visit Gujarat in the later stage of poll campaign. AAP spokesman for Gujarat Harshil Nayak said AAP Gujarat in-charge and Delhi Minister Gopal Rai would address a gathering in Rajkot West constituency next week. Rajkot West is Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani’s constituency and he is expected to contest this election from the same seat.
Apart from these three political parties, leaders of other regional parties, including Nationalist Congress Party, Janata Dal (United), Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party, are expected to visit the State either in favour of Congress or ruling BJP. Polling in Gujarat will be held in two phases — on December 9 and 14 this year.