Plan to rope in senior SAD-BJP leaders for city candidate’s campaign

Ludhiana: To give a final push to the ongoing campaign of Maheshinder Singh Grewal — the SAD-BJP candidate from Ludhiana — the local leaders are now looking towards the senior leaders of both BJP and SAD. Akali leaders from the city have asked the BJP state leadership to bring in PM Narendra Modi, Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath, and BJP president Amit Shah for a rally in the city in the last week of campaigning.
Among their own leaders, they are requesting former CM Parkash Singh Badal to come to the city at least once in support of Grewal, because the latter had remained a political advisor to the senior leader. Some of the leaders claimed that with the arrival of these central leaders, the position of their candidate would become strong, and people would cast a vote in his favour.
One Akali leader claimed they had even requested the BJP leaders to bring in actor Sunny Deol — who is contesting elections from Gurdaspur as a BJP candidate — to Ludhiana, for canvassing in Grewal’s favour. “Since Sunny’s father Dharmendra hails from Sahnewal, people love the Deol family, and it will leave a great impact on voters if he comes here,” he added.
Also, the Youth Akali Dal (YAD) is planning a rally in the city on May 13, where former cabinet minister Bikram Majithia will participate. In the morning, Majithia will meet Akali Dal councillors, and then he will participate in the roadshow in support of Grewal. The leaders are also trying for former deputy CM Sukhbir Badal, but he is busy in his own canvassing in Ferozepur, so it remains to be seen whether he can make it to the city or not.
Meanwhile, SAD district president Ranjit Dhillon said: “Here in Punjab, elections will take place in the last phase, and we have asked some senior and star campaigners of both parties to visit Ludhiana. Though the dates and exact names are not clear, we are expecting them from May 12 to 17. Grewal is already doing well in his campaigning, and the public support too is there, but with these campaigners, his position will become stronger.”
On the other hand, Congress MLA from East constituency, Sanjay Talwar, said: “The star campaigners cannot help the candidate, because lower level workers and the party cadre are missing from the campaigning.” He said Ludhiana will give the worst result to SAD-BJP candidate in the entire state. “Moreover, Modi had come for Manpreet Ayali in 2014, but he was defeated,” he added.