Advani, Modi deemed election risks.

Byline: Ajay Jha, Chief Correspondent

New Delhi: In what may appear like a tactical retreat, some top Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders may be used sporadically for campaigns in the upcoming assembly elections in Maharashtra.

The BJP's star usual campaigners during the parliamentary elections, veteran leader Lal Krishna Advani and Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi, are expected to play a very minimal role when the campaigning kicks off.

While the BJP-led opposition National Democratic Alliance (NDA) had projected Advani as its prime ministerial candidate, Modi had been touted as a possible candidate for the country's top post.

Various BJP leaders and internal surveys had suggested that while Advani's uncharitable comments against incumbent Prime Minister Manmohan Singh did not go down well with voters, propping Modi as a possible prime minister did the party more harm than good.

Elections for the 288-seat Maharashtra assembly along with those in Haryana and Arunachal Pradesh are slated to take place on October 13.

According to BJP insiders, the Maharashtra unit of the BJP is of the view that the party can do without services of Advani and Modi, who together project the radical pro-Hindu face of the BJP.

Their presence may deter voters, who are unhappy with the state's ruling Congress-Nationalist Congress Party alliance, from voting for the BJP.

The BJP is going to polls in the state as junior partner to the Shiv Sena, which is more seen as a pro-Maharashtra party in the state.

The BJP believes it stands a good chance of coming to power in Maharashtra in an alliance with the Shiv Sena as the ground situation has changed since the Lok Sabha elections in which Congress-NCP won 25 out of 48 Lok Sabha seats compared to 20 by the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance.

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