New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has released a list of 40 star campaigners for the first phase of the upcoming West Bengal and Assam assembly elections.
Veteran actor Mithun Chakraborty, who recently joined the BJP during a public rally of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Kolkata, will be campaigning for the party in West Bengal. Others on the list include Bengali actors Yash Dasgupta and Payal Sarkar.
On 9 March, in a letter to the Election Commission, BJP national general secretary and Rajya Sabha member Arun Singh submitted the list of 40 star campaigners.
Apart from PM Modi and Chakraborty, BJP’s list of star campaigners for West Bengal includes BJP chief J.P. Nadda, Unions ministers Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari, Arjun Munda, Dharmendra Pradhan, Smriti Irani and Babul Supriyo.
Chief ministers Yogi Adityanath and Shivraj Singh Chouhan will also campaign for the BJP candidates in West Bengal. Other names include Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Narottam Mishra, BJP MPs Manoj Tiwari, Locket Chatterjee, Roopa Ganguly and Shanawaz Hussain, besides Kailash Vijayvargiya, Dilip Ghosh, Suvendu Adhikari, Rajib Bangerjee, Arvind Menon, Amit Malviya.
Actress Srabanti Chatterjee, who recently joined the BJP, has also been made a star campaigner for Bengal.
Assam list of star campaigners
In a separate list of star campaigners for Assam, the BJP has named Modi, Nadda, Shah, Gadkari, B.L. Santosh, Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, Himanta Biswa Sarma, state BJP president Ranjeet Kumar Dass, Narendra Singh Tomar, Union ministers Jitendra Singh, Smriti Irani and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi.
Chief ministers Yogi Adityanath (UP), Shivraj Singh Chouhan (MP), Pema Khandu (Arunachal Pradesh), and N Biren Singh (Manipur) will also be campaigning in Assam.
PM Modi is likely to address over 20 rallies in poll-bound West Bengal, where assembly elections will be held in eight phases starting 27 March.
The party has already deputed 22 senior leader leaders to supervise around 100-odd assembly constituencies that can play a significant role in the outcome. The BJP has been making inroads in the state following an impressive Lok Sabha performance and wants to continue the winning streak after the Bihar assembly elections.
Edited by Sanghamitra Mazumdar
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