MP Polls: Congress yet to find star campaigners!

BJP dumps Sidhu, Khanna, retains Hema Malini, Shatrughan

Bharatiya Janata Party has retained celluloid figure of yesteryear Hindi Cinema Hema Malini, Shatrughan Sinha and small screen star Smiriti Irani as its star campaigner besides ace scion, prime ministerial candidate and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

On the other hand Congress has yet not submitted list of star campaigners to the election commission. All parties have been asked to submit their star campaigner’s list before launching the campaign.

However the party has dumped star of bygone era like Vinod Khanna and even former cricketer Navjot Singh Sidhu, political figures like Bihar’s ex-deputy chief minister Sushil Modi and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi.

Hema Malini, Khanna and Sidhu had shared various podiums in 2008 elections for BJP campaign in Madhya Pradesh. Their poll campaign schedule has yet not been finalized though Narendra Modi will address at least ten meetings at various places in Madhya Pradesh.

“Ten public meetings of Modi have been planned in major towns, names will be disclosed later,” a BJP spokesperson said.

Besides Modi, party’s president Rajnath Singh, other party heavyweights; LK Advani, Sushma Swaraj, Nitin Gadkari, Murli Manohar Joshi, M Venkaiah Naidu, National General secretary Ananth Kumar, Raman Singh, chief minister of Chhattisgarh), National vice president Uma Bharati, National spokesperson Ravishankar Prasad and Shahnawaz Hussain, Arun Munda, will also campaign for polls that will take place on 25th of this month.

To give local flavor to its campaign, the party has also assigned task to local leaders member of parliament from Bhopal Kailash Joshi, ex-chief minister and veteran leader Sunderlal Patwa, Vikram Verma, Prabhat Jha, Sumitra Mahajan, Dilip Singh Bhuria, Yashodhara Raje Scindia, Satyanarayan Jatia, Narendra Singh, Tomar, Rakesh Singh, Prahalad Patel, Kailash Vijayvargiya, Sumitra Mahajan, Raghunandan Sharma and Maya Singh.

Modi’s meeting will be organized at divisional headquarters and are likely to take place during 18 and 23 November, the spokesperson said.

Modi has not visited Bhopal since September 25 this year when he had addressed a 'Karyakarta Mahakumbh' (meeting of booth-level workers) which was the last major show of the ruling BJP in the state.

Former Chief Minister Uma Bharti has also been assigned to campaign extensively for the party.