As the last day for the filing of nomination papers for the Gujarat Assembly Elections 2017 comes to an end on Tuesday, the political parties across the state are all set to bring in their most prominent faces to lure the voters.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has some of the most popular faces, including star campaigners Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP President Amit Shah, LK Advani, Rajnath Singh, Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj, Nitin Gadkari, Uma Bharti, Smriti Irani, Vasundhara Raje Scindia, Yogi Adityanath, Devendra Fadanvis, Sushil Kumar Modi and Hema Malini, apart from the state leaders.

Advertisement

The Congress till now has largely been visible through party Vice-President Rahul Gandhi. However, a number of experienced leaders from the grand-old-party are all set to campaign in the state. The list includes Party President Sonia Gandhi, Vice President Rahul Gandhi, Ex-Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Ashok Ghalot, Ahmed Patel, Gulam Nabi Azad, Anand Sharma, Bhupinder Hooda, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Amrindar Singh and a number of state leaders.

An interesting inclusion in the list is the name of OBC leader Alpesh Thakor, who had recently declared his open support to the Congress Party for the Gujarat assembly elections. Navjot Singh Sidhu, Punjab leader who recently joined the Congress and old hand actor-turned-politician Raj Babbar will also campaign for the party in the state.

Meanwhile, Nationalist Congress Party’s (NCP) list has names of party supremo, Sharad Pawar, his daughter Supriya Sule, Praful Patel and Tariq Anwar. While Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) list has only one prominent name, that of its leader Mayawati. Samajwadi Party, who is supporting Congress, has forwarded the name of its Party President, Akhilesh Yadav.

Shiv Sena, who is also fighting Gujarat elections independently, is said to field candidates from 50-75 seats across the state and has given names of party supremo Uddhav Thackeray and his son Aditya Thackeray, apart from some other names.

A number of other smaller national parties and regional parties have also forwarded names of its candidates for campaigning but the “star campaigners’ will always attract more crowds.

However, will they be able to get their respective parties votes is a topic of debate and best left to the electoral outcome on December 18.