A select few BJP office-bearers are active in the old party office on Ashoka Road which is functioning as a war room. A team of BJP functionaries have shifted base to the old office. Key campaign strategies — based on feedback from social media, newspaper reports and programmes on news channels — are collated and discussed before being moved to the higher ups. Those preparing ads and dealing with campaign material and logistics also meet the concerned teams here. The campus is out of bounds for the neutral media.
Trinamool’s Ghatal candidate and Bengali actor Dev (Deepak Adhikari) was greeted with “Jai Sri Ram” as he landed at Bagdogra airport. Unlike West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee who gets furious at this greeting, he hugged a BJP worker. “At the end, love prevails. I believe in spreading love,” Dev said.
Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut is always in news for riling up opponents and friends alike. Not keen to get into a slanging match with him, many Opposition leaders have termed him ‘mentally unstable’. Going a step further, Navi Mumbai’s MNS leader Gajanan Kale claimed he has requested Yerawada Mental Hospital to admit Raut. Kale has attached news clippings as “proof of Raut’s illness”.