BJP to start campaigning for polls on Oct 1

Bharatiya Janata Party Vice President Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi announced on Friday that the party would kickstart its election campaigning for the assembly elections from October 1 and would use the trumpcard of the Congress party's misrule in the states.

"The BJP will ask the people to vote for the party and its allies for the sake of good governance, for their well-being and security. Besides, the BJP will raise the burning issues of price rise, corruption, unemployment and the plight of farmers to awaken the Centre and state governments from their slumber," he said, addressing a press conference in New Delhi.

Naqvi said the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance would be contesting all seats in Maharastra, with the BJP contesting 119 of the 288 seats. In Haryana, the BJP has put up its candidates on all the 90 seats, while in Arunachal Pradesh, the BJP is contesting 24 out of 60 seats.

Giving details of party's performance in the 2004 assembly polls, he said, the BJP had gone alone in 240 seats and contested 417 seats in alliance.

"Senior leaders including L K Advani, Rajnath Singh, Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj, Venkaiah Naidu and Narendra Modi will go for canvassing in these states."

Party General Secretary Gopinath Munde will campaign in Maharastra, while Vijay Goel will campaign in Haryana.

"Advani will spend four days in Maharashtra and two days in Haryana, and similarly other senior leaders will also campaign in these states for a few days," he said.