New Delhi: Narendra Modi, who had kept aside just one day to campaign in election-bound Delhi, has agreed to extend his campaign in the capital and other states where assembly polls are being held after requests from the local BJP units that the party's prime ministerial candidate hold more rallies.
So Mr Modi will campaign for one extra day than scheduled in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan and two more days in Delhi, BJP vice president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said today.
There has been speculation that Mr Modi was reluctant to associate himself with the Delhi campaign as he reportedly assessed that the BJP did not have a very good chance of winning the state, where the Congress' Sheila Dikshit has been chief minister for the last 15 years.
He had not attended a crucial meeting of the BJP's parliamentary board, a group of its top 12 leaders, when it decided on Harsh Vardhan as the party's chief ministerial candidate in Delhi. Mr Modi had sent his consent.
Sources said Mr Modi was keen that Dr Harsh Vardhan's rival state unit chief Vijay Goel be stopped from projecting himself as the BJP's presumptive chief minister as he felt that this was harming the party's prospects.
The Gujarat Chief Minister had also skipped a meeting of the party's central election committee that decided on BJP candidates for the 70 Assembly seats in Delhi.
In Shivraj Singh Chouhan's Madhya Pradesh, where Mr Modi had been conspicuously absent on BJP posters when the campaign began, the Gujarat Chief Minister will campaign on five days this month - November 18, 20, 21, 22 and 23. He has already addressed a rally in the BJP-ruled state last month.
Seen as rivals in the party not too long ago, Mr Chouhan and Mr Modi have had much public praise for each other after the latter was named the BJP's presumptive PM in September this year.
The BJP's star campaigner has a packed fortnight ahead. Mr Modi will be in BJP-ruled Chhattisgarh on November 14 and 15 and on November 19, 24, 25 and 28 in Rajasthan, which his party hopes to wrest from the Congress.
Madhya Pradesh will vote on November 25, Rajasthan on December 1 and Delhi will vote on December 4. First phase of polling was held yesterday in Chhattisgarh and the rest of the state will vote on November 19. Votes will be counted in all states on December 8.