Karnataka Elections: Many known faces are nowhere on BJP, Congress campaign lists

BJP, Congress release list of star campaigners.

As the BJP and the Congress cross swords for the Karnataka House, the lists of warriors on the campaign trail throw up many new faces, but some known heroes are seen nowhere.

The ruling saffron squad has chosen 40 leaders for campaigning in the state, starting from Prime Minister Narendra Modi to eight Cabinet ministers like defence minister Rajnath Singh and home minister Amit Shah, and three chief ministers, including Yogi Adityanath.

Many young BJP parliamentarians from Karnataka such as Tejasvi Surya and Pratap Simha are missing from the list, along with BJP’s poll mascot and former chief minister BS Yediyurappa’s son BY Vijayendra.

The 32-year-old Tejasvi was among the party’s star campaigners in Tripura. He and and Simha, who represents the Mysuru-Kodagu constituency, are known for their firebrand Hindutva politics.

The BJP has also chose to overlook icons like Piyush Goyal, Hema Malini and Manoj Tewari. They were star campaigners in the 2018 Assembly elections.

The new star campaigners for the party this year include its national president JP Nadda and Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.

Opposition Congress has lined up 40 star campaigners, leaving Sachin Pilot and Navjot Singh Sidhu out.

Pilot has of late been at loggerheads with Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot over several issues, which has turned out to be a major challenge for the party high command ahead of the Assembly elections.

Cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu was released recently from jail after serving a one-year sentence in a 1988 road rage death case.

Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who was missing from the campaign trail back in 2018, has made it to the list this time with Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi as the Grand Old Party hopes to secure over 150 seats in Karnataka. Sonia, who had refrained from giving speeches in the run-up to the Gujarat polls, is expected to address several rallies in Karnataka.

Congress veterans like Jairam Ramesh, Ashok Gehlot and Randeep Surjewala have made it to the Karnataka hotlist of campaigners this time after being shunned away in 2018.