New Delhi: The Congress on Wednesday released the list of star campaigners for the upcoming Karnataka Assembly elections on May 10. Party leaders Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, former Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar, party MP Shashi Tharoor are among the ones who will be campaigning in the poll-bound state. The list has a total of 40 names who will be campaigning for the state.
The list also has names of other Congress hotshots including Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Karnataka party chief DK Shivakumar, Leader of Opposition in the Karnataka Assembly Siddaramaiah, AICC in-charge of Karnataka Randeep Surjewala, KC Venugopal, Jairam Ramesh, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, his Chhattisgarh and Himachal Pradesh counterparts Bhupesh Baghel and Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, apart from others. However, the name of Rajasthan Congress leader Sachin Pilot, who was on the list of star campaigners for the 2018 Karnataka polls, was dropped from the list.
Ramalinga Reddy, Satish Jarkiholi, D K Suresh, G C Chandrashekhar, Syed Naseer Hussain, Zameer Ahmed Khan, H M Revanna, Umashree, Revanth Reddy, Ramesh Chennithala, Srinivas B V, Raj Babbar, Mohammed Azharuddin, Divya Spandana, Imran Pratapgarhi, Kanhaiya Kumar, Rupa Shashidhar and Sadhukokila are also on the list.
Earlier in the day, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) released its list of star campaigners, that had the names of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP President J P Nadda, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and a strong team of Union Ministers, including Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah, Nitin Gadkari, Nirmala Sitharaman, Smriti Irani, Dharmendra Pradhan, Mansukh Mandaviya and Pralhad Joshi.
Apart from UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, his Madhya Pradesh and Assam counterparts Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Himanta Biswa Sarma, and Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadvavis are also among the BJP star campaigners.
Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, Karnataka BJP strongman BS Yediyurappa, former Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda, some Karnataka ministers and state party leaders also figure in the list.
Meanwhile, senior Congress leader and former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah filed his nomination from Varuna constituency earlier in the day. The ruling BJP has fielded Minister V Somanna from the seat to take on Siddaramaiah.
Notably, the 75-year-old, eight time MLA, had earlier won twice from Varuna, and went on to become the Leader of Opposition after winning in 2008, and then became Chief Minister after 2013 Assembly elections.