NEW DELHI, 25 March 2007 — The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) will today formally launch its campaign for Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections whicn begins on April 7.
“Janata Dal-United President Sharad Yadav and Bharatiya Janata Party, President Rajnath Singh will jointly launch the NDA campaign from Jhansi,” said a JD-U statement.
Former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee was kept out of the campaign launch since the party had dropped plans to use its moderate face in UP elections.
However, the BJP said Vajpayee will join the campaign at a later stage. “He (Vajpayee) is likely to join the campaign at a later stage,” party Vice President Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said.
Meanwhile, a day after declaring that it will go alone in assembly elections, Congress party yesterday released its fourth list of candidates consisting of 66 names taking the total number of candidates to 300 so far.
Senior party leaders from the state Surender Kumar Munni, Rambriksh Trivedi, Sanjiv Mishra and Yogendramani Tripathi found a place in the list. The JD-U also released the names of 17 candidates.
