J&K polls: BJP’s list of 40 star campaigners released, PM Modi to lead campaign

New Delhi, Aug 26 : The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday unveiled the names of its 40 star campaigners who will hit the ground running for the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections, scheduled for next month.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will lead the party’s campaign in the Union Territory (UT) while the star campaigners will work round the clock to galvanise support for the party.

Among the star campaigners are BJP President J.P. Nadda, Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and other Union Ministers including Nitin Gadkari, Manohar Lal Khattar, G Kishan Reddy, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, and Jitendra Singh.

These star campaigners will seek to develop a public connect with the masses and elicit their support in the upcoming polls.

The Chief Ministers of BJP-ruled states including UP's Yogi Adityanath and Rajasthan's Bhajan Lal Sharma will also hold rallies in the UT to project the BJP’s progressive politics while former BJP Chief Ministers like Jairam Thakur of Himachal Pradesh and BJP in-charges including Tarun Chugh, Ram Madhav and more will try to explore new ways of BJP’s outreach to the masses in the Union Territory.

Former Union Ministers including Smriti Irani, Anurag Thakur and General VK Singh (Retd) will also seek votes for the party, in a bid to repeat its stupendous performance in the 2014 Assembly elections. In the last Assembly elections, held in 2014, the BJP did exceptionally well, sweeping 25 seats while the People’s Democratic Front (PDP) stayed just three ahead of it to emerge as the single-largest party.

BJP's Jammu and Kashmir chief Ravinder Raina, former Assembly Speaker and former Deputy CM Kavinder Gupta, and former Deputy CM Nirmal Singh have also been roped in to win over the support of locals at the hustings. Leaders like Devendra Singh Rana and Sunil Sharma will utilise their ‘ground connect’ in building a pro-BJP wave in the impending elections.

Jammu and Kashmir is slated to undergo three-phase Assembly polls, with first phase (24 seats), second (26 seats) and third phase (40) falling on September 18, September 25 and October 1. The results will be declared on October 4.