PANAJI
With campaigning for the February 14 election gaining steam, the BJP and Congress have raised the stakes with several high profile leaders expected to make a beeline to the State for their electoral campaigns.
After his visit on January 30, Union Home Minister Amit Shah will once again interact with people, party leaders and karyakartas.
Other prominent names that are scheduled to visit Goa include Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari, Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani and BJP National President J P Nadda.
The star campaigners are scheduled to tour constituencies in North and South. The BJP is also expected to release its election manifesto which has incorporated suggestions from the common people.
Smriti Irani will be in Goa on February 5 while the following day, February 6, Gadkari will arrive. On February 7, Shah will campaign for the party while Defence Minister’s campaign tour is slated for February 10-11. Nadda will also be in Goa on February 8 and February 11.
The Congress too has roped in several politicos from Maharashtra and Karnataka apart from its national leader Rahul Gandhi.
The party has raised its stakes and is moving towards micro-managing its efforts in as many as 31 of the 37 constituencies it is contesting.
On Friday, its top leader Rahul Gandhi is expected to arrive and address a virtual rally.
According to GPCC president, Girish Chodankar, MLAs and ex-MLAs besides party office-bearers from the two neighbouring States are already in Goa and are shouldering the dual responsibility of campaigning as well as functioning as 'observers' in 31 constituencies. Chodankar however did not identify these constituencies.
On Friday, Rahul Gandhi is slated to campaign door-to-door in Mormugao followed by holding back-to-back meetings with all Congress candidates at the International Centre, Dona Paula.
The Congress leader is also expected to interact with representatives of industry besides shack operators in the afternoon.
His virtual rally is to be held at Sanquelim later in the evening at an open ground from where the feed will be telecast at various venues across the State.
Earlier this week, Congress chiefs of both Maharashtra and Karnataka -- Nana Patole and D K Sivakumar -- have already made their presence felt in the State over the last couple of days.
Ravi Basavraj, Srinivas Mane, Maharashtra minister Yashomati Thakur, Chandrashekar Rathod, Satej Patil, Rizwan Harshid, Ivan D'Souza, Lokesh Naik, Suni Gowda Patil, Dr Anjali Nimbalikar, Priyanka Kharge, Vishwajit Kadam, Kunal Patil, Vishwas Vaidya, Hamid Mushrif, Satish Sail, Krishna Gowda, Laxmi Hebbalkar, Dayanand Patil, P V Mohan, Dr Ajay Singh, Taufeek Maulana, Sunil Hanumanwar, Vijay Singh, SantoshLaad and Natraj Gaud are some of the leaders appointed observers in various constituencies.
