Prime Minster Narendra Modi might have taken Aam Aadmi Party convener Arvind Kejriwal head-on during the Bharatiya Janata Party rally at Ramlila Maidan, but neither Mr. Modi nor BJP president Amit Shah is scheduled to address election rallies in Mr. Kejriwal’s constituency, New Delhi.
Mr. Kejriwal is once again in the fray from New Delhi, where he registered a historic win in the previous elections by defeating former Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit by over 25,000 votes, as the party consider the seat to be a “home turf”. While the saffron party’s poster boy is all set to give the constituency a miss, party’s chief ministerial face Kiran Bedi has been called in to participate in road shows across the New Delhi constituency.
The BJP has fielded former student leader Nupur Sharma from this seat, but has decided not to bring in the top leadership to campaign for her. Sources said other leaders, however, would campaign for Ms. Sharma . Ahmedabad MP and actor Paresh Rawal would be campaigning in New Delhi on Wednesday. Party leaders said Mr. Modi will focus on wooing voters in peripheral constituencies and will go back to venues where he had previously addressed rallies ahead of the 2013 Delhi Assembly elections.
This weekend, he will revisit the DDA grounds in Dwarka where he had launched a scathing attack on the Sheila Dikshit-led Congress government questioning her for not being able to provide water to the city’s residents. The Dwarka rally will focus on 12 Assembly segments – 10 from the West Delhi constituency and Palam and Bisjwasan from South Delhi.
Mid-next week, Mr. Modi will head to Rohini, from where he had set the poll pitch last time and had urged people to bring the “dream team” of the BJP to power in the State. The Rohini rally will focus on wooing voters from the segments of Northeast and Northern parts of the city.
Though Mr. Modi continues to be the star campaigner in the Capital, his main target in speeches, however, is likely to change from the UPA government to principal rival, the AAP . Election rallies will also be held in the Trans Yamuna areas on January 31 and in Ambedkar Nagar on February 4.
