JOIN USThe BJP has made changes to its list of star campaigners for the high-voltage Bihar Assembly election starting on October 12.
The party has brought in leaders like Kirti Azad, Kalraj Mishra, Janardan Singh Sigriwal and Pawan Sharma to canvass support for its candidates in the polls.
From the list of 40 star campaigners the BJP had submitted to the Election Commission (EC) late last month, former Jharkhand chief minister Arjun Munda, C R Patil, Navjot Singh Sidhu and Satyendra Kushwaha were dropped. Cricketer-turned-politician Sidhu was dropped after he was hospitalised, said BJP sources.
Of the four new faces that the BJP has included, three are Brahmins. The move is to give a message to the community, party sources said. The new list will also be handed over to the EC.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the BJP’s most sought after campaigner, continued with his aggressive campaigning in the poll-bound state. He has addressed five rallies in the last two days to wind up the electioneering on Saturday, the final day of campaigning for the first phase.
Modi is expected to attend around 30 rallies during the five-phase polling, the final campaigning for which will be held on November 3, five days before the results are declared.
Party sources said holding PM rallies frequently is part of a strategy to convert the Assembly polls into a general-election mode, which is expected to help the BJP overcome shortcomings like weak candidates. It is no surprise that the PM has attached a personal stake to the poll by stressing at the public meetings that he would develop the state and give an account of promises made and fulfilled towards the end of the tenure.
Bihar poll speeches disappoint EC
The Election Commission (EC) on Friday conveyed its “deep sense of anguish” and “serious concern” over plummeting level of speeches by politicians in poll-bound Bihar, DHNS reports from New Delhi.
Amid the “demon” versus “super-demon” slugfest between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad, the EC reminded the politicians that the fundamental right of Freedom of Speech and Expression guaranteed under Article 19 (1)(a) of the Constitution was “not absolute”. It was “required to be exercised” without transcending “boundaries of decency and morality” and “without disturbing public order” or amounting to “defamation or give incitement to an offence”, it felt.