UP polls: Modi, Nadda lead BJP's star campaigners; Varun, Maneka excluded

Others on that list include Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Home Minister Amit Shah and state president Swatantra Dev Singh

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday released a list of 30-star campaigners for Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections.

While many star campaigners like Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah are on the list, party MPs and mother-son duo Maneka Gandhi and Varun Gandhi have been excluded from the list. The duo has been victorious multiple times from Sultanpur and Pilibhit.

In the recent rejig of the BJP national executive committee, the two were also dropped from that list.

BJP released a list of 30 leaders who will campaign for the party's candidates in the first phase of the upcoming Uttar Pradesh election.

The first name on that list includes Prime Minister Narendra Modi followed by party national president JP Nadda. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and BJP candidate from Gorakhpur Yogi Adityanath also features on that list of star campaigners.

Others on that list include Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Home Minister Amit Shah and state president Swatantra Dev Singh.

Union Ministers Dharmendra Pradhan, Smriti Irani, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Dinesh Sharma Keshav Prasad Maurya were also on the list. Sanjeev Balyan and Radha Mohan Singh amongst others were on the list.

Varun Gandhi has taken on Twitter on multiple occasions questioning his party on farmers issue and also the mowing down of farmers by Union MOS Ajay Mishra Teni's son and subtly blaming his government in the Centre and in the state for not taking action quick enough to arrest Ashish Mishra Teni.

Given the constraints of campaigning because of the spread of COVID, the BJP is likely to hit the campaign trail in Uttar Pradesh in a phased-out manner doing door-to-door campaigning and from there on doing closed-door meetings which would allow 300 people.

BJP sources told ANI that the top leaders of the party including Home Minister Amit Shah and national president JP Nadda will start touring Uttar Pradesh starting the third week of January.

Uttar Pradesh assembly elections will be held in seven phases from February 10 to March 7. The polling in Uttar Pradesh will be held on February 10, 14, 20, 23, 27 and March 3 and 7.