Modi to campaign in Himachal next week

After staying away from the poll campaigns in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Uttarakhand earlier this year, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi has decided to campaign in Himachal Pradesh where Assembly elections are due to be held next month.

"He has indicated a tentative date that he has spared specifically for campaigning in Himachal Pradesh despite the fact that he is busy with elections in Gujarat," confirmed Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, in-charge of central election management and coordination unit of the party.

Modi is slated to be in Himachal next Monday. He is learnt to have indicated his availability to the party leadership over the weekend.

Modi has also reached out to the party leadership in Bihar, inviting them to campaign in Gujarat which goes to polls in December. He called up Bihar BJP chief C P Thakur on Sunday in this connection.

Earlier, the Gujarat BJP unit had left out Bihar party leaders from its list of star campaigners that was submitted to the Election Commission. This was seen as a snub to the Bihar BJP unit for not taking a stronger stand against CM Nitish Kumar for not letting Modi campaign in the 2010 assembly elections in Bihar.

Meanwhile, the BJP's central leaders are all slated to go to Himachal Pradesh over the next fortnight, starting with Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley tomorrow.

While the state party unit will raise local issues, the party's central unit indicated that they will target the Congress on the Centre's "step-motherly treatment" of BJP-ruled states.

"The BJP government in Himachal as well as Gujarat has faced serious step-motherly treatment from the Congress-led central government. There are numerous instances of step-motherly treatment. Despite that our governments have provided all round development and good governance in the state," said Naqvi.

BJP spokesperson Nirmala Sitharaman also highlighted many issues ranging from alleged premature curtailment of special industrial package to the state, cutting down the armed forces recruitment from Himachal Pradesh, not extending central assistance on the lines of Northeastern states. "Congress has given step-motherly treatment to Himachal to deny development to the state. Sonia Gandhi has to give answer for these," she said.

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