Kolkata, April 5 – The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday released a list of its key campaigners, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, for the West Bengal Assembly elections.
According to the official list, BJP national president Nitin Nabin, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Union Ministers Nitin Gadkari, J.P. Nadda, and Dharmendra Pradhan, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, and several other senior leaders will campaign in the state.
Other prominent names featured in the list include Mithun Chakraborty, Leander Paes, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, Delhi CM Rekha Gupta, Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis, Odisha CM Mohan Charan Majhi, Tripura CM Manik Saha, Union Ministers Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Ashwini Vaishnaw, party leaders Smriti Irani, Hema Malini, Kangana Ranaut, Anurag Thakur, Annapurna Devi, Arjun Munda, Babulal Marandi, Samrat Choudhary, Manoj Tiwari, Bhupender Yadav, Sunil Bansal, Biplab Kumar Deb, Mangal Pandey, and Amit Malviya.
Among the state leaders featured in the list are Samik Bhattacharya, Suvendu Adhikari, Dilip Ghosh, Dr Sukanta Majumdar, Shantanu Thakur, Raju Bista, and others.
The announcement came on a day when Prime Minister Modi held an election rally in the Cooch Behar district of West Bengal. This was his first campaign rally in the state after the polling dates were announced on March 15.
PM Modi said on Sunday, criticizing the Mamata Banerjee-led West Bengal government that the entire country has been shocked by the recent incident at Kaliachak in the Malda district of West Bengal, where seven judicial officers were taken hostage by miscreants.
According to the Prime Minister, the situation in West Bengal is so alarming that even the Supreme Court has raised questions over the law and order situation in the state.
“Not a single constitutional body in West Bengal has been spared. But I am promising that after the elections, all such transgressions will be accounted for. The Trinamool Congress is trying to provide shelter to illegal infiltrators. But the Bharatiya Janata Party is determined to stop these infiltrators,” PM Modi said.