The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has released a list of its ‘star campaigners’ for the upcoming Karnataka elections on May 10. The list, released earlier today, features Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Ministers Amit Shah, Nirmala Sitaraman and Rajnath Singh, among others. The Congress party released its list of 40 campaigners on Wednesday, April 19. The list includes Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi and Shashi Tharoor. Rahul kicked off the Congress election campaign in Kolar on April 16.
Among the list of 40 names submitted by the BJP to the Election Commission, 18 are from outside the state. The prominent faces campaigning for elections are JP Nadda, Yogi Adityanath, Nitin Gadkari, Smriti Irani, Dharmendra Pradhan, Mansukhbhai Mandavya, K Annamalai, Arun Singh, DK Aruna, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Hemant Biswa Sharma, Devendra Fadnavis, Prabhakar Kore and Bhagavanth Khuba.
Karnataka leaders like BS Yediyurappa, Nalin Kumar Kateel, Basavaraj Bommai, Pralhad Joshi, DV Sadananda Gowda, KS Eshwarappa, M Govind Karjol, R Ashok, Shobha Karandlaje, A Narayanaswamy, Arvinda Limbavali, B Sriramulu, Kota Srinivasa Poojari, Basanagouda Patil Yatnal, Umesh Jadhav, Shalavadi Narayanaswamy, N Ravikumar, GV Rajesh and film actors Jaggesh, Shruthi, and Tara Anuradha also figure in the list of campaigners.
BJP chief JP Nadda is already in Karnataka on a two-day visit for the first time after BJP announced its candidates. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Minister Amit Shah have already visited Karnataka several times in the last few months in the run-up to the polls.
The Congress list includes former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, Karnataka Congress Chief DK Shivakumar and former CM Jagadish Shettar who shifted to Congress from the BJP. Other notable leaders on the list include Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel. The list does not include the name of Sachin Pilot, who has recently been involved in a face-off with Ashok Gehlot.