Assembly polls: Will star campaigners turn the tide in BJP's favour?

With no local face in the poll bound States, the BJP is rolling out its big guns from key vote catcher Narendra Modi to party's actor-turned MPs Hema Malini and Vinod Khanna for the election campaigning.

Post split with its allies in Haryana and Maharashtra, the party is determined to take no chance and approaching the polls on a war footing.

BJP has plans to hold at least four big rallies a day in both Maharashtra and Haryana till campaign ends for the October 15 polls.

Who are the star campaigners?

PM Modi will begin campaigning from Karnal in Haryana on Saturday then he will move to Maharashtra to address three rallies in Beed, Aurangabad and Mahalakshmi (Mumbai). The PM is scheduled to address 8-10 rallies in Haryana and around 22 in Maharashtra.

Beside Modi, senior Ministers Rajnath Singh, Sushma Swaraj, M Venkaiah Naidu, Nitin Gadkari are also scheduled to address the rallies. Also, the party has roped in all its Chief Ministers to ensure its good governance campaign is showcased. Chief Minister of BJP-ruled States Vasundhara Raje, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Manohar Parikkar and Raman Singh will also be present in campaigning.

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will hold four separate rallies in Haryana on Saturday. Singh will be at Radaur, Kalayat, Julana and Jakholi Rai while Swaraj will address rallies in Kalka, Thanachhapar, Shahbad and Gohana.

Swaraj is expected to address nearly 22 rallies in Haryana . She will address three rallies in Maharashtra on October 6. Gadkari is expected to address about 36 rallies in Maharashtra while Rajnath Singh will address about 15 rallies in both the States.

According to a TOI report, party veteran L K Advani will address six rallies in Maharashtra and two in Haryana, while Murli Manohar Joshi will address two rallies in Maharashtra and one in Haryana. Other Ministers who will be part of election campaigning in both States are chemical and fertilizer Minister Ananth Kumar, HRD Minister Smriti Irani and Social Justice Minister Thawar Chand Gehlot. Party chief Amit Shah will address about 15 rallies in both States.

BJP's actor-turned-MPs Hema Malini, Vinod Khanna and Shatrughan Sinha will also try to woo voters to party's favours.

BJP at ground-zero

The party has decided to go all alone in the ensuing Assembly polls in both the States. In Haryana, its three-year-old ally Haryana Janhit Congress snapped ties accusing BJP of betraying.

The ties between the partners came under strain due to differences on seat-sharing for the Assembly polls. HJC chief Bishnoi sought 45 of the 90 seats in the State along with the Chief Ministerial post, but BJP declined it.

In Maharashtra, the BJP severed its 25-year-old alliance with Shiv Sena over the seat-sharing and Chief Ministerial post issue.