In the run up to the high octave Bihar poll campaign, the BJP has decided to field star campaigners like Prime Minister Narendra Modi, party president Amit Shah, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Home Minister Rajnath Singh, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, HRD Minister Smiriti Irani, Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari and other key Central Ministers.
Party veterans lK Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi, both members of “Margdarshak Mandal”, too figure in the list of main campaigners in Bihar. However, Joshi, who is reportedly recovering from his knee operation, may not be available for the campaigning.
The list of 40 names submitted to the Election Commission by the party also has disgruntled actor-turned-MP from Bihar Shatrughan Sinha as a campaigner.
Even as the BJP prepares for carpet bombing in Bihar and more than a dozen rallies of Narendra Modi in the State, the party has asked “all prominent leaders across the country” to be battle ready to move to Bihar at a short notice.
Among the BJP Chief Ministers — Shivraj Singh Chouhan (MP) and Raghubar Das (Jharkhand) — are to go to Bihar in first installment.
“BJP has no dearth of star leaders for campaigning where as the rivals are in short supplies. There could be more than hundred campaigners in the State,” said Arun Singh, BJP general secretary and headquarters-in-charge. He said the list of 40 campaigners is on account of limitation set by the Commission.
Bihar’s election-in-charge and Union Minister Ananth Kumar, State-in-charge and Rajya Sabha member Bhupendra Yadav, deputy-in-charge and MP from Gujarat C R Patil and former Bihar-in-charge and Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan too would hit the campaign trail in the State which goes to poll between October 12 and November 5 with result to be announced on November 8.
Others included as campaigners are actor-singer Manoj Tiwari, Hema Malini and television personality Navjyot Singh Siddhu. BJP general secretary (organisation) Ram lal and joint general secretary Saudan Singh (both from RSS) would be part of BJP’s Bihar campaign onslaught.
Senior BJP leaders Central Ministers from Bihar — Sushil Kumar Modi, Nanadkishore Yadav, Dr CP Thakur, Nagendra Nath, Radha Mohan Singh, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Giriraj Singh, Ram Kripal Yadav, Ashwini Kumar Choubey, Mangal Pandey Shahnawaz Hussain, Hukum Narain Yadav, Janak Chamar, Ajay NIshad, Nityanand Rai and Satyendra Narayan Kushwaha — are to address public meetings and rallies across the State until the end of campaigning. Former Jharkhand Chief Minister Arjun Munda has also been roped in by the party for its poll offensive.
Satpal Mahraj, a former Congress leader from Uttarakhand and now with the BJP, who is also a religious preacher, would also be influencing voters in favour of the BJP by way of his oratorical skills.