Mumbai: Veteran Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Lal Krishna Advani, who was denied a ticket for the Lok Sabha election, will be one of the party’s 40 star campaigners in Maharashtra. The BJP on Wednesday submitted its list of star campaigners for the western state to the Election Commission of India (ECI).
The Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena also released its list of star campaigners, which mentions 20 personages, including Mr Thackeray, his son Aaditya Thackeray and senior leader Subhash Desai.
The Samajwadi Party (SP) has also handed over its star campaigners’ list to the ECI, and the party’s founder and veteran leader Mulayam Singh will campaign in Maharashtra.
According to the BJP’s list, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, party national president Amit Shah, Union home minister Rajanath Singh, Union foreign minister Sushma Swaraj, Union transport minister Nitin Gadkari, Union minister Smriti Irani and Union railway minister Piyush Goyal will be campaigning in the state.
Although sitting Kanpur MP Murli Manohar Joshi, a founder of the BJP, has been dropped as a candidate, he will be campaigning in Maharashtra for the party. UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath, Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, former MP chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and former Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje Scindia are among the star campaigners. Disgruntled BJP leader Eknath Khadse will also campaign for the party in the state.
According to the SP’s list, former UP chief minister and SP national president Akhilesh Yadav, general secretary Azam Khan, Rajya Sabha MP Beni Prasad Verma, Bollywood actor and Rajya Sabha MP Jaya Bachchan, Maharashtra SP president Abu Asim Azmi, and secretary and SP leader in the BMC Rais Shaikh, among others, will be seeking votes from the people of Maharashtra.
Besides the Thackerays, state Cabinet ministers Diwakar Raote, Ramdas Kadam and Eknath Shinde have also been included in the Sena’s star campaigners’ list.
According to the list, MP Sanjay Raut, sitting Lok Sabha MP and Union Minister Anant Geete, Lok Sabha MP Anandrao Adsul and Lok Sabha MP Chandrakant Khaire will also be campaigning for the party across the state.
Sena leaders Aadesh Bandekar, Gulabrao Patil, Vijay Shivtare, Suryakant Mahadik, Vinod Ghosalkar, Neelam Gorhe, Laxman Vadle, Nitin Bangude Patil, Varun Sardesai and Rahul Londhe will also be star campaigners for the party.
