BHUBANESWAR: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will lead the BJP campaign for the upcoming elections to Lok Sabha and Assembly in Odisha aided by other top guns of the party like Union Home minister Amit Shah, Defence minister Rajnath Singh and national president JP Nadda.
The central office of the BJP on Tuesday released a list of 40 star campaigners for the state to the Election Commission of India (ECI) and the chief electoral officer (CEO) of Odisha.
In a press statement, BJP national general secretary Arun Singh said that 10 Union ministers, three chief minister and senior leaders have been included in the list. Nitin Gadkari, Ashwini Vaishnaw, Smriti Irani, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Bhupender Yadav, Dharmendra Pradhan, Shantanu Thakur and Bishweswar Tudu are the other union ministers to campaign in the state.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav and Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai are the other star campaigners who are also scheduled to campaign for BJP candidates here.
Chhattisgarh minister for Forest and Climate Change Kedar Nath Kashyap, Odisha in-charge of BJP Sunil Bansal, his co-in-charges Vijay Pal Singh Tomar and Lata Usendi, state president Manmohan Samal, MPs Jual Oram, Aparajita Sarangi, Pratap Chandra Sarangi, Basanta Panda, Suresh Pujari, national vice-president Baijayant Panda, national spokesperson Sambit Patra, leader of Opposition in state Jayanarayan Mishra also figured in the list.
Kendrapara MP and Odia film star Anubhav Mohanty, who quit BJD and joined the BJP recently, actors Pinky Pradhan and Sritam Das are the other star campaigners.
Shah will be the first among the star campaigners from Centre to visit the state on April 25. He will address an election rally at Sonepur under Balangir Lok Sabha constituency.