Parties to rope in heavyweights
Bogged down by charges of corruption and disproportionate assets of ministers, the ruling Congress party has chalked out an extensive plan to put Congress heavyweights—Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, AICC president Sonia Gandhi and youth icon, Rahul Gandhi to lead the battle from the front.
The Congress's list of 40 star campaigners submitted to the commission also includes Pranab Mukherjee, M. Veerappa Moily, Ghulam Nabi Azad and Abhishek Manu Singhvi.
In contrast, the CPI(M) will rope in Tripura chief minister Manik Sarkar and politburo members Brinda Karat and Sitaram Yechury to woo voters for its candidates in the first phase of Assam assembly elections. The CPI(M)'s list also has three ministers from Tripura, Manik Dey, Anil Sarkar and Jiten Choudhury and Nilotpal Basu. The BJP, hopeful of a miraculous outcome in Assam Assembly this time, has also planned a star-studded campaign from Bollywood stars to party stalwarts for the ensuing assembly election.
Shatrughan Sinha, Navjot Singh Sidhu, Hema Malini, Smriti Irani, Kiron Kher, Narendra Modi, L.K. Advani and Nitin Gadkari will be among 40-odd star campaigners of the party. The electioneering by these star campaigners is expected to pick up soon after Holi. In fact the AIUDF, which considers itself the kingmaker of Assam politics is not behind.
The perfume baron Badaruddin Ajmal who will be in charge of AIUDF's campaign, has already booked two helicopters for campaigning by Bollywood stars and prominent Muslim personalities. While one chopper will be pressed into service for campaigning in Barak Valley the other will be used for lower Assam.
Besides Bollywood personalities like Raj Babbar and Mahesh Bhatt, the party is trying to rope in veteran actors like Naseeruddin Shah and Farooq Sheikh.
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