Yuvraj Singh Yuvraj Singh

Cricketer Yuvraj Singh is likely to campaign for the BJP in the forthcoming Assembly elections in Haryana, sources said on Friday.

The decision, sources said, was taken in a meeting Yuvraj had with BJP president Amit Shah in New Delhi on Friday.

The cricketer from Chandigarh is considered to be popular in Haryana, where the BJP hopes to topple the two-time chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda of the Congress.

Elections to the Maharashtra and Haryana Assembly will be held in a single phase on October 15 and the counting of votes will be done on October 19, the Election Commission announced on Friday.

For the beleagured Congress, the upcoming polls in the two states currently ruled by it are an opportunity to make a comeback and shed its losing streak after the Lok Sabha humiliation when the party was reduced to an all-time low 44 seats.

The Assembly elections, to be held shortly after the BJP's spectacular victory in the Lok Sabha polls in May, will also check if the Narendra Modi wave still persists or has subsided.

The Maharashtra Assembly has 288 seats while Haryana has 90.