These Are BJP's "Star Campaigners" For Karnataka Election

Bengaluru: The BJP will deploy some 40 "star campaigners" including Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Karnataka ahead of the assembly election on May 12, the party has told the state's top election officer.

BJP's Lok Sabha member from Karnataka Shobha Karandlaje in a letter to the state chief electoral officer Sanjiv Kumar mentioned the names of the party's star campaigners who will fly down to the Congress-ruled state to run a full-throttle campaign barely days before the election.

Besides PM Modi and Bharatiya Janata Party president Amit Shah, union ministers Sushma Swaraj, Smriti Irani, Nirmala Sitharaman, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Piyush Goyal and Hema Malini will visit the southern state where the BJP is counting on its state chief BS Yeddyurappa to take the party to victory.
 "The prime minister is expected to visit the state tentatively from May 1 and is expected to hold at least 10-12 rallies across the state before the election," Karnataka BJP spokesman S Shantharam told news agency IANS.

PM Modi is likely to visit each of the state's four regions -- coastal, north, central and south -- besides Bengaluru and Mysuru, addressing two-to-three rallies a day till May 10.

The exact dates of the BJP leaders' visits to the state are yet to be finalised, the spokesperson added.
 Home Minister Rajnath Singh visited the state's coastal districts of Udupi and Dakshina Kannada on Monday. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Adityanath has visited the state at least four times so far to address rallies in Hubballi, Bengaluru, Davanagere and Mangaluru.

The Karnataka assembly election will be held in a single phase for 224 assembly seats, including 36 reserved for the Scheduled Castes and 15 for Scheduled Tribes. Votes will be counted on May 15.

The Congress's campaign is led by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.

With inputs from IANS