Punjab Elections: BJP Unveils Star Campaigners List; PM Modi, HM Amit Shah Among 30 Named

Feb 03,2022

With Punjab elections a few weeks away, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday unveiled its list of star campaigners for the state. The list comprising 30 names in total include Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amir Shah. Also on the list are Union Ministers Rajanath Singh, Smriti Irani, Nitin Gadkari, Piyush Goyal, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Hardeep Singh Puri, Anurag Thakur among others. 

The list also features Haryana's CM Manohar Lal Khattar and the CM of Himachal Pradesh, Jairam Thakur. Also, there is Dushyant Kumar Gautam, Manoj Tiwari, Hema Malini, Hans Raj Hans, Vinod Chavda, Narindra Singh Raina, Tarun Chugh, Som Prakash, Avinash Rai Khanna, Shwait Malik, Sunny Deol, Harjit Singh Grewal, PS Gill, SS Virk and Sardar Nidharak Singh Brar. 

These are besides BJP's national president JP Nadda, Vice President Saudan Singh and the saffron party's Punjab President Ashwani Sharma. 

BJP is contesting Punjab polls in alliance with Captain Amarinder Singh's Punjab Lok Congress and Shiromani Akali Dal (Sanyukt). Capt's Punjab Lok Congress (PLC) will contest on 37 seats, Akali Dal (Sanyukt) on 15 seats and BJP on 65 seats, as per its seat share pact, in the upcoming Punjab polls.

However, SAD-turned-BJP leader Manjinder Sirsa, hinted at a possible reconciliation between Akali Dal and BJP in a post-poll scenario. Addressing a press conference in Delhi, Sirsa was asked if there was a possibility of a BJP-Akali Dal reunion. He responded, "Anything can happen in politics".

The saffron allies broke ties after 23 years over differences over the now-repealed three Farm Laws.

Punjab elections 
The Election Commission of India on January 8 had announced the dates for the Punjab Assembly elections 2022 which will be held on February 20 to elect 117 members of the 16th state Legislative Assembly.

The Republic TV-PMARQ Opinion Poll has presented a snapshot projection of where the various parties stand at the moment in the state. Of the number of parties in fray like Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Congress, Punjab Lok Congress, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the Opinion Poll has made a promising projection for AAP. 

For Punjab, the Opinion Poll projects that AAP may bag 50-56 seats (37.8 %) of the total 117 seats, Congress 42-48 seats (35%), SAD 13 to 17 seats (15.8%), BJP 1-3 seats (5.7%) and others 1-3 seats (5.6%).