Chidambaram, Naidu, Gadkari to campaign in Mumbai

Union Ministers Venkaiah Naidu and Nitin Gadkari and former Union Minister P Chidambaram will be among the star campaigners for the high-octane campaign for the February 21 Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation polls.
Chidambaram will address a rally for Congress candidates here tomorrow, Mumbai Congress chief Sanjay Nirupam said.
Naidu and Gadkari will address rallies in the city on February 13 and 16, respectively, Mumbai BJP president Ashish Shelar said.
Union Minister of State Purushottam Rupala and MP Manoj Tiwari will also address BJP campaign rallies here, he added.
Maharashtra BJP ministers Vinod Tawde, Sudhir Mungantiwar, Pankaja Munde and Chandrakant Patil will also hold campaign rallies for BMC elections.

Altogether 2,276 candidates are in the fray for the 227 seats of the country's richest civic body.

As many as 13 political parties will slug it out in the crucial polls, results of which will be out on February 23.
A transgender candidate has filed nomination in the ward number 166 (Kurla Bus Depot to Sakinaka).
Shiv Sena is the only party to field candidates on all the 227 seats, while Congress will fight it out on 221, BJP on 211, MNS on 201, NCP on 171, BSP on 109, Samajwadi Party on 76 followed by Hyderabad-based AIMIM on 56 seats.

After deciding not to have tie-up with Shiv Sena for civic polls, BJP has aligned with RPI(A), Rashtriya Samaj Paksha (RSP) and Shiv Sangram parties.
In the 2012 BMC elections, the Sena had contested from 135 wards and BJP on 63 seats, while 29 seats were contested by RPI and others in the 'grand alliance'. The Sena won 75 seats and BJP 31.