Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala: Ahead of the Kerala Assembly elections, major political parties, including the BJP and Congress, have submitted their lists of star campaigners to the Election Commission (EC), PTI reported on Friday.
The lists feature prominent national leaders such as Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, along with her children Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, and senior leader Shashi Tharoor.
The BJP's roster also includes party president Nitin Nabin, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar. Notably, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is not part of the BJP's 40-member star campaigners' list.
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Prime Minister Modi has already visited Kerala twice and is scheduled to return on Sunday to campaign further.
The Congress' star campaigners include party president Mallikarjun Kharge, Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy, Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar, and Sachin Pilot. Rahul and Priyanka had campaigned in Kerala even before the poll dates were announced, while Kharge, Tharoor, and Pilot joined election-related events afterwards.
Other parties have also submitted their lists: Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief and former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is included among their top campaigners. Similarly, Lok Janshakti Party (Ramvilas), Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), and the Bahujan Samaj Party have named their party chiefs and senior leaders as star campaigners for political events in the poll-bound state.