PM Modi, CMs of UP, HP, Haryana among 20 star campaigners in J-K

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and chief ministers of Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Haryana are among the BJP's 20 star campaigners in Jammu and Kashmir.

BJP president Amit Shah, Union ministers Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari, Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj are among the leaders who will lead the electioneering in the state ahead of the general elections, a BJP spokesperson said.

The prime minister on Thursday addressed a rally in Akhnoor on the outskirts of Jammu. He began his speech by greeting people in the local Dogri language and went to exhort them to vote for his party's Jammu-Poonch candidate Jugal Kishore Sharma.

Jammu and Kashmir has six parliamentary constituencies. The state will vote in five phases on April 11, 18, 23, 29 and May 6.

"We have prepared the list of over 20 star campaigners for the Parliamentary elections. They include the prime minister, Union ministers and chief ministers of three states," BJP spokesperson Priya Sethi told PTI.

The party has field sitting MPs Jugal Kishore Sharma and Jitendra Singh from the Jammu and the Udhampur Lok Sabha seats respectively.

Jamyang Tsering Namgyal will contest from the Ladakh seat, Sheikh Khalid Jehangir from Srinagar, Mohammad Maqbool War from Baramulla and sitting MLC Sofi Yousef from the Anantnag seat.

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Union Minister Road Transport & Highways Nitin Gadkari, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Union Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj, Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment Thawarchand Gehlot, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare Jagat Prakash Nadda, Union Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Union Minister Drinking Water & Sanitation Uma Bharti, Union Textiles Minister Smriti Irani, Union Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi are some of the campaigners in the state.

Apart from them, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur will also come to the state to supports the BJP candidates.

From Jammu and Kashmir, BJP state president Ravinder Raina, Union MoS PMO Jitendra Singh, J-K Legislative Assembly Speaker Nirmal Singh, MP Jugal Kishore Sharma, MP Shamsher Singh Manhas, former deputy CM Kavinder Gupta will be holding rallies.