Sena’s decision to contest the Bihar polls would be interesting as the party had accused the Bihar politicians of trying to make actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s death an electoral issue

In an indication that Shiv Sena has decided to contest the upcoming Bihar assembly polls with all the might, it has named party president and Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray as its star campaigner.

The Sena will be sending several of its top leaders to campaign in the northern state. On Thursday, it released a list of 20 leaders who will campaign in Bihar.

Along with Uddhav, his son and Maharashtra tourism minister Aaditya Thackeray will also be one of Sena’s prime campaigners in Bihar. Other party leaders, who would campaign, include Maharashtra industries minister Subhash Desai, MPs Sanjay Raut, Anil Desai, Vinayak Raut, Arvind Sawant, Rahul Shewale and Priyanka Chaturvedi.

To strike a chord with the local voters, the party has also named north Indian leaders like Yograj Sharma, Kaushalendra Sharma, Vinay Shukla, Gulabchand Dubey, Akhilesh Tiwari and Ashok Tiwari to campaign in Bihar.

The Sena has announced that it will contest nearly 50 seats in Bihar Assembly polls. According to Sena leaders, the party had contested the 2015 assembly polls too, in which it had polled more than two lakh votes. The party had contested 73 seats and all of its candidates had forfeited deposit.

Sena’s decision to contest the Bihar polls would be interesting as the party had accused the Bihar politicians of trying to make actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s death an electoral issue. “Some issues can be shipped from Mumbai if they don’t have real issues,” Sanjay Raut had said earlier.

“Elections in Bihar should be fought on the issues of development, law and order and good governance, but if these issues are exhausted, then issues from Mumbai can be sent as a parcel,” he had said.