BJP to unleash ‘star’ power in campaign,Paresh Rawal first

Besides party bigwigs like Sushma Swaraj,Rajnath Singh,Arun Jaitley,Venkaiah Naidu and L K Advani,a host of film personalities will try and work their charms on the voters during the campaign period. Several film actors have been decided upon,but except for Paresh Rawal and Manoj Joshi,the dates have not been fixed for others.

Rawal is scheduled to address at least four meetings from Surat to Kheda districts next Wednesday. So will Joshi,but his itinerary is still to be worked out,said party sources.

Rawal will address a public meeting at Kamrej Chokdi in Surat at 2 pm. From there he will go to Vadodara for another meeting at 5 pm.

He will then address two meetings at Anklav and Mahudha at 5.30 pm and 7 pm. Later,he will speak to the media at Ahmedabad before leaving for Mumbai the same day.

Rawal told mediapersons: “I will soon campaign for the BJP in Surat,Vadodara and Ahmedabad.”

He is likely to be joined by other actors like Darshan Jariwala and Apara Mehta,who will travel to various parts of Gujarat and campaign for the party.

But Rawal,who had made a public appearance with Narendra Modi during the Vibrant Gujarat Global Investors’ Summit this January,strongly denied any plans to enter politics or either contest elections. He also clarified that it is the BJP’s work in Gujarat that inspired him to campaign for the party.

Hema Malini,Smriti Irani,Dharmendra and Vinod Khanna are also likely to campaign.