Parties fielding stars for campaigning ahead of Delhi polls

It's star war in Delhi as the national capital goes to Assembly polls on February.

Prominent parties are fielding filmstar-turned-politicians to turn the campaign heat on.

The AAP, the Congress and the BJP along with other parties have shared their list of star campaigners whom they would be fielding the February 8 poll for campaigning across the capital.

This is besides the heavyweight leaders like Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP president J P Nadda, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Congress president Sonia Gandhi, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as well as top Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi.

The BJP will have 'Dream Girl' Hema Malini, Sufi singer Hansraj Hans, cricketer Gautam Gambhir, actor Sunny Deol and Bhojpuri superstar Ravi Kishan, all MPs. It will also bring another Bhojpuri superstar Dinesh Lal Yadav 'Nirauha', who unsuccessfully contested the Lok Sabha polls from Uttar Pradesh on a BJP ticket.

To add to this, it will also have Delhi BJP chief and MP Manoj Tiwari, another Bhojpuri superstar and singer, throughout the campaign trail.

For Congress, actor-turned-politician Shatrughnan Sinha, who left BJP to join the Opposition ranks, will be one of the biggest attractions along with former cricketer and Punjab Congress MLA Navjot Singh Siddhu, known for his one-liners and couplets.

It will also have actors Nagma and Khushboo, both Congress leaders, in the list of star campaigners. Congress is also fielding its Chief Ministers Ashok Gehlot, Captain Amarinder Singh, Kamal Nath, N Narayanaswamy and Bhupesh Bhagal among others as star campaigners.

The AAP's list of 39-star campaigners has singer Vishal Dadlani as well as party's Karnataka leader from Bengaluru Prithvi Reddy.

The parties have chosen their star campaigners keeping in mind a substantial number of Poorvanchalis, who have roots in eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, as well as Punjabis as voters in the capital.

Both the BJP and the Congress have given a list of 40 each star campaigners. Besides these, individual candidates are also likely to rope in their "celebrity friends" for their campaigning.

The expenses incurred on the campaign by star campaigners are not accounted in individual candidates' poll expenses. It is accounted in the party's expenses, which have no limit.

The NCP, which will be contesting in seven seats, have 34 star campaigners, including party chief Sharad Pawar, Supriya Sule, Praful Patel, Shankersinh Vaghela and Nawab Mallik.

The BSP has named 40 star campaigners, including Mayawati, Satish Chandra Mishra, Akash Anand and Veer Singh among others.

Akali Dal, which has decided not to contest Delhi Assembly polls two days ago, had given a list of 20 Star Campaigners to the Election Commission on January 14. Their list included Sukhbir Badal, Harsimrat Kaur and Naresh Gujral among others.