By IANS,
Raipur : Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi will address a series of public meetings during his two-day election tour to Chhattisgarh beginning Nov 8 to campaign for Bharatiya Janata Party candidates, including Chief Minister Raman Singh.
Party leaders said Modi would address meetings in Durg, Rajanandgaon and Kawardha districts. On the Rajnandgaon seat, state Chief Minister Raman Singh is locked in a straight fight with Congress party’s sitting legislator Udai Mudliyar.
The Congress won the Rajnandgaon seat in Nov 2003 polls against BJP nominee Leelaram Bhojwani by just 40 votes.
Modi will address meetings at Vaishali Nagar segment in Durg where the party has fielded Durg mayor and state unit spokesperson Saroj Pandey. He will address a rally in the neighbouring Bhilai constituency as well where Assembly Speaker Premprakash Pandey is finding the going tough this time against Congress nominee and former minister Badruddin Qureshi.
The BJP is planning to arrange Modi’s public meeting at Raman Singh’s home district Kawardha too where the Congress has fielded its sitting legislator, Yogiraj Singh.
BJP leaders claim that the party candidates were lobbying for Modi’s public meetings in their segments and Modi will travel at least one more time before campaigning ends for the second phase of polling Nov 18.
The state goes to the polls in two phases, Nov 14 and 20, to elect a new 90-member Assembly.
In the first phase, 39 segments will go to polls and the rest in the next phase.