The Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) is flexing up its muscles for the upcoming Chhattisgarh state Assembly Elections, leaving no stone unturned, to conquer the state four times in a row. In order to counter anti-incumbency, in the first list of 77 candidates for the 90 member Chhattisgarh assembly, the BJP has not offered tickets to 14 sitting MLAs including a minister. The party denied ticket to Women and Girl Child Welfare Minister- Ramshila Sahu- who happens to be a MLA from Durg rural.
Now, the BJP has released a 40-member list of star campaigners for Chhattisgarh state assembly elections. It includes names of a dozen Union Ministers, around half a dozen Chief Ministers of the BJP governing states along with BJP’s super star campaigner PM Modi and the party President Amit Shah.
According to the One India report, two general secretaries have been also included in the list of the star campaigners and the names of joint general secretary (organization) and the state general secretary (organization) Soudan Singh and Pawan Sai respectively, are also part of the star campaigner list.
Some of the big names that have made it to the star campaigners’ list include Hema Malini, Union Textiles Minister Smriti Irani and the Delhi BJP President Manoj Tiwari. The state has a sizeable number of Bhojpuri speaking people. Manoj Tiwari could be extremely effective among such people as he is a famous Bhojpuri singer. He can directly communicate to people in Bhojpuri giving BJP that much required rustic edge.
In the list of its star campaigners, the BJP has given space to many senior tribal leaders like Union Tribal Welfare minister Juel Oram, former Jharkhand chief minister Arjun Munda and Faggan Singh Kulaste keeping in mind presence of large number of tribal populace in the state.
The names of following Chief Ministers’ have been included in the list of star campaigners: Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and obviously the Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh will be campaigning in the state.
Among all the Chief Ministers’ the presence of CM Yogi would be the most crucial one. He is nightmare for the opposition in elections. Ever since he came to power, he became the proverbial blight to the dynasty. He has become a star campaigner for the BJP; voters of states such as Tripura, Gujarat and Karnataka have already stamped his acceptability and image as a firebrand speaker and a leader. The tough stance of CM Yogi on criminals and his approach towards development in the state have further boosted his credentials. CM Yogi, with his Hindutva image, would definitely evoke emotions of people in the upcoming State Assembly election. His presence would definitely lead to a consolidation of Hindu votes.
Some young faces like MP Abhishek Singh and MP Ranvijay Singh Judev also feature in the list of star campaigners. The Union Ministers included in the list are Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, External Affairs minister Sushma Swaraj, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Union Transport minister Nitin Gadkari, Uma Bharati, Smriti Irani, Dharmendra Pradhan, Juel Oram, Ravi Shankar Prashad, Jagat Prakash Nadda.