New Delhi:
BJP's prominent Muslim faces as well as its leaders from Bihar are not on the list of star campaigners, provided to the Election Commission, for the Gujarat assembly elections. The party has shares power with ally JD-U in Bihar, whose chief minister Nitish Kumar has often objected to Mr Modi campaigning for the alliance in the state.
The party, which has often fielded its Muslim leaders like Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Shahnawaz Hussain to speak on behalf of the party on contentious issues involving minorities, has decided not to field them as party campaigners in Gujarat despite a sizeable Muslim population in the state.
BJP's campaign in Gujarat, where Chief Minister Narendra Modi is seeking a fourth consecutive term, will now be in the hands of senior leaders LK Advani, Nitin Gadkari, Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj, besides Mr Modi himself.
The BJP is also fielding its Chief Ministers Raman Singh, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Prem Kumar Dhumal, Jagdish Shettar, Manohar Parrikar and Arjun Munda as its star campaigners during Gujarat polls, but has decided not to field Bihar's deputy chief minister Sushil Modi in its list of campaigners.
The party has also left out its prominent leaders from Bihar to campaign in Gujarat, even though its spokespersons like Ravi Shankar Prasad and Rajiv Pratap Rudy have held fort on behalf of the party at the national level.
The lone Muslim face who will be campaigning for BJP in Gujarat is Sufi Sant Mahebub Ali Baba, president of BJP's Gujarat State Laghumati Morcha. Other leaders who will campaign for the party include former party presidents Rajnath Singh and Venkaiah Naidu, MPs Parshottam Rupala and Balbir Punj, Gopinath Munde and party's general secretary (organisation) Ram Lal.
While Hema Malini and Smriti Irani will add star value to the campaign, cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu has also been listed as a campaigner even though he is currently busy with television show "Big Boss".
State BJP leaders like Gujarat party chief R C Faldu, Vijay Rupani, Bharatsinh Parmar, Natuji Thakor, Kaushik Patel, Anandiben Patel, Bhupendrasinh Chudasama, Harin Pathak, Fakir Vaghela, Parshottam Solanki, Shankarbhai Vegad and Jayshriben Patel, President, Mahila Morcha, Gujarat along with Pradipsinh Vaghela, President of Yuva Morcha, will also campaign during the polls.