BJP CMs to keep away from Delhi civic poll campaigns

New Delhi: As planned earlier, the BJP has decided not to rope in any of its chief ministers for the election campaign in the national capital. However, BJP big wigs, including party chief Amit Shah along with Union ministers Rajnath Singh, Smriti Irani, and Venkaiah Naidu, will address meetings on April 20.

A well-placed source in the BJP said that no public meetings or roadshows have been planned for any of the nine chief ministers whose name figured in the list of star campaigners.

Explaining the reason behind not finalising any programme for the nine chief minister of the BJP-ruled states, a senior party leader said that the decision was taken by the top leadership.

“The central leadership, including party president Amit Shah, has not approved the idea of using the chief ministers for the civic polls. Mr Shah directed that senior party workers who are now appointed as Union minister can be assigned some public meeting or roadshows,” he said.

Based on the workers’ demand, the Delhi BJP had finalised a list of 42 star campaigners which includes chief ministers of nine party-ruled states, including Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath. The list also includes 13 Union ministers, all the Lok Sabha members from Delhi, and Hema Malini, Bhojpuri star Ravi Kishan and other senior party leaders.

In the absence of Mr Shah’s approval, the party has not planned any campaign programme for Mr Yogi and other chief ministers like Shivraj Singh Chauhan, Vasundhara Raje, Manohar Lal Khattar, Raman Singh, Raghubar Das, Sarbananda Sonowal, and Devendra Fadnavis.

Delhi BJP president Manoj Tiwari told this newspaper that Union ministers Rajnath Singh, Arun Jaitley, M. Venkaiah Naidu, Smriti Irani, and Krishna Pal Gurjar will be campaigning for the party from April 18 to 21.

“Union minister Vijay Goel, Jitendra Singh, Dr Harsh Vardhan, Sanjeev Balyan and other senior leaders have already started campaigning for the party,” added Mr Tiwari.

BJP Lok Sabha member Hema Malini has also done a roadshow seeking votes for party candidates. Ravi Kishan has also been intensively campaigning for BJP.