With assembly polls in Left-ruled Tripura less than two weeks away, the high-pitch campaigning is set to gain further momentum as top leaders are scheduled to come to canvass for their parties.
Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Tripura unit spokesman Mrinal Kanti Deb said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address two election rallies in northern and western Tripura on Thursday while finance minister Arun Jaitley, several other Union ministers and top BJP leaders, including party president Amit Shah, will also campaign.
Union home minister Rajnath Singh, information and broadcasting and textile minister Smriti Irani, chief ministers of party-ruled Assam, Manipur, Nagaland, Uttar Pradesh, and Jharkhand, BJP’s national general secretary Ram Madhav, and Assam minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, who is BJP’s election in-charge for Tripura, have also campaigned or will soon do so.
On the other hand, the ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist’s (CPI-M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury, politburo members Prakash Karat, Brinda Karat, Biman Bose, Subhashini Ali, and West Bengal state secretary Surjya Kanta Mishra are also part of the campaign process for the Northeast border state.
Congress president Rahul Gandhi, former prime minister Manmohan Singh, former Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi, Puducherry chief minister V Narayanasamy, Congress MP Jyotiraditya Scindia, party’s Rajasthan unit chief Sachin Pilot will be among other leaders who will start campaigning in the state from Wednesday.
Congress’ state unit vice president Tapas Dey said that their election manifesto will be released within a week, while BJP spokesman Deb said that Jaitley will release the BJP’s ‘Vision Document’ for Tripura at Agartala on February 12.
The CPI-M-led Left Front already released their election manifesto on January 30.
Elections would be held on February 18 and counting of votes would take place on March 3.
