BJP lines up union ministers, MPs to counter AAP

New Delhi, Jun 9(PTI) The BJP has lined up 40 star campaigners including union ministers Piyush Goyal and Smriti Irani to campaign for its Rajinder Nagar seat candidate to assail the AAP’s electoral dominance in Delhi.

Rajinder Nagar seat will go to polls on June 23. The seat was vacated by sitting AAP MLA Raghav Chadha after he got elected to Rajya Sabha from Punjab.

The campaigners' list however did not figure names of top leadership of the party, such as national president JP Nadda, Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh and Nitin Gadkari.

The list includes, among others, names of nine union ministers, all seven MPs from Delhi, including Manoj Tiwari, Hansraj Hans, and Gautam Gambhir, all its MLAs, and state chief Adesh Gupta, said a Delhi BJP leader.

The other union ministers who are slated to campaign for BJP candidate Rajesh Bhatia include Narendra Singh Tomar, Bhupender Yadav, Giriraj Singh, and Meenakshi Lekhi.

The AAP has fielded Durgesh Pathak and Congress Prem Lata in the bypoll. The poll results will be declared on June 26.

In the 70 member Delhi Assembly, the AAP has a brute majority of 61 while BJP has eight MLAs. Congress has no member in the Assembly.