A day ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the poll-bound Jharkhand, Union Home Minister Amit Shah is set to visit the state to launch the Opposition BJP’s manifesto for the Assembly polls on Sunday.

Shah will release the party’s “Sankalp Patra”, said BJP’s Jharkhand election in-charge and Union Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Saturday. Shah will also address three rallies in Dhalbhumgarh, Barkatha and Simaria.

Announcing that the PM and Home minister will launch the BJP’s Jharkhand campaign, Chouhan made a call for a “double-engine” government in the state, claiming the “development work came to a standstill” under the Chief Minister Hemant Soren-led JMM-Congress government.

Jharkhand will vote in the Assembly polls across two phases on November 13 and November 20, with counting on November 23. The BJP will be looking to reverse its 2019 Assembly and 2024 Lok Sabha results. The party fell from 37 Assembly seats in 2014 to just 25 in 2019, losing out in tribal-dominated seats in particular. In the recent Lok Sabha polls, the NDA fell from 11 seats to eight, but lost all Scheduled Tribe-reserved seats to the JMM and Congress.

Recently the party has been raking up the issue of conversions of tribals, besides attacking the ruling government’s record on development and corruption to swing the polls back in its favour. With Shah and Modi visiting the state in quick succession, the party’s campaign is likely to gain momentum. The JMM and the Congress, in the hopes of countering anti-incumbency, has been touting its welfare schemes, including the Maiyya Samman Yojna to grant women aged 18 to 50 Rs 1,000 per month in assistance.

Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi will resume her campaign for the Wayanad Lok Sabha bypoll from Sunday by holding public and corner meetings in the hill constituency with her brother, Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi, the party said on Friday.

The Congress general secretary, who is making her electoral debut, will be in Kerala till November 7, according to her itinerary released by the party.

Priyanka will hold a joint public meeting with Rahul on Sunday in Wayanad’s Mananthavady and thereafter conduct corner meetings separately at three other places. Rahul will hold a public meeting separately at Areekode.

The resumption of Priyanka’s bypoll campaign comes amid criticism from her rivals that she will come and go from the constituency like a “guest” or a “seasonal festival”.

The by-election for Wayanad was necessitated after Rahul Gandhi, who won the Lok Sabha polls from here and Rae Bareli, decided to vacate Wayanad. Voting in Wayanad will be held on November 13.

The BJP’s Jammu and Kashmir unit will hold a meeting in Srinagar on Sunday to elect its legislature party leader ahead of the first Assembly session in the Union Territory to be held on November 4. The BJP bagged its all-time high of 29 seats in the recent Assembly elections, which saw the National Conference come to power.

Last month, the BJP’s parliamentary board appointed Union minister Pralhad Joshi and the party’s national general secretary Tarun Chugh as observers to elect the legislature party leader in J&K. Five names are under active consideration but things will be clear once the meeting takes place, sources said.

– With PTI inputs