Ranchi, Oct 25 (IANS) The BJP has unveiled a list of 40-star campaigners for the Jharkhand Assembly elections which includes top leaders of the party such as Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP National President JP Nadda, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Home Minister Amit Shah, and Union Road and Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari.

The party’s National General Secretary and Headquarters In-charge, Arun Singh, has informed the Election Commission of India about the star campaigners list.

The state’s 81 assembly seats will be contested in two phases, with voting for 43 seats set to take place on November 13 for the first phase, giving parties and candidates just 18 days to campaign for this phase.

Among the leaders announced as star campaigners, Union Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma have already started campaigning on the ground, holding 10-12 meetings every day in the last three days.

Other key BJP Chief Ministers set to campaign include Uttar Pradesh’s Yogi Adityanath, Madhya Pradesh’s Mohan Yadav, Odisha’s Mohan Charan Majhi, Haryana’s Nayab Singh Saini, and Chhattisgarh’s Vishnu Deo Sai.

Union Ministers Dharmendra Pradhan and Annapurna Devi, along with Ministers of State Nityanand Rai and Sanjay Seth, will also play prominent roles in the campaign.

Other senior leaders, including Smriti Irani, UP Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya, Bihar Deputy CM Samrat Chaudhary, and Rajya Sabha members Laxmikant Bajpayi, Nagendra Nath Tripathi, Karmveer Singh, and Suvendu Adhikari, have featured in the list of star campaigners.

From the BJP’s Jharkhand state unit, notable figures such as State President Babulal Marandi, Opposition Leader Amar Kumar Bauri, former Union Minister Arjun Munda, former Chief Minister Champai Soren, former MP Karia Munda, Rajya Sabha MP Deepak Prakash, and MPs Vidyut Varan Mahto, Nishikant Dubey, and Dhullu Mahto will join the campaign.

Other prominent members include Aditya Sahu, Pradeep Verma, Balmukund Sahay, former MLA Sita Soren, former Minister Ramchandra Chandravanshi, Manoj Singh, and Ghuran Ram.

The nomination process for the first phase concluded on Friday, October 25, with 868 candidates filing their papers, as per the Election Commission’s website.