Uttarakhand: Star campaigners of both Cong, BJP to visit hill state after Holi

Dehradun, Mar 20: Star campaigners of both BJP and Congress will hit the campaign trail in Uttarakhand after Holi to shore up chances of their respective candidates on the five Lok Sabha seats of the state going to polls in the first phase on April 11.

While AICC general secretary incharge of eastern Uttar Pradesh Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is likely to hold a roadshow in Kumaon region of the state to drum up support for party nominees, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah will address rallies in both Kumaon and Garhwal regions to boost the party's prospects, sources in both parties said.

"Two rallies each of the PM and the party president in Kumaon and Garhwal regions have been proposed by us. However, the dates for the rallies and the venues are still being finalised," state BJP president Ajay Bhatt said.

The tentative venues for Modi's rallies are Dehradun, Haridwar, Srinagar and Haldwani whereas Tehri and Almora are the tentative venues for Shah's rallies, he said. The list of star campaigners includes Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, former Army chief and Union minister Gen V K Singh, Union Health Minister J P Nadda, and Hema Malini and Manoj Tiwari, he said. While Congress president Rahul Gandhi has addressed a rally in Dehradun to launch his party's poll campaign, his sister Priyanka Gandhi is expected to hold a roadshow somewhere in the Kumaon region, senior party leader Suryakant Dhasmana said.

A list of state-level start campaigners has also been prepared which includes former chief minister Harish Rawat, PCC chief Pritam Singh, Leader of Opposition in Uttarakhand Assembly Indira Hridayesh and the party's state incharge Anugrah Narayan Singh, Dhasmana said.

Both BJP and Congress, the two major parties in the state, have not yet announced their candidates for the polls. The BJP, which won all five seats in the state riding on the Modi wave in 2014, faces the challenge of retaining them in the forthcoming election.

PTI