Lok Sabha polls: Uma Bharti fails to make it to BJP’s list of star campaigners in MP; turncoat Pachouri in

Bhopal: Former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Uma Bharti is missing from the BJP’s list of star campaigners for the Lok Sabha polls in the state. However, the party has picked Suresh Pachauri, who recently switched over from Congress, for the job.

The ruling party on Tuesday night released its list of 40 star campaigners for MP, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

Uma Bharti had led the BJP to victory in the 2003 assembly polls.

Earlier this month, the senior BJP leader had said that she would not contest elections for the next two years and instead work for the rejuvenation of the Ganga river, but also made it clear that she won't retire from politics.

Besides MP Chief Minister Mohan Yadav, his counterparts Yogi Adityanath (Uttar Pradesh) Bhajanlal Sharma (Rajasthan), Bhupendra Patel (Gujarat) Himanta Biswa Sarma (Assam), Vishnu Deo Sai (Chhattisgarh) will promote BJP candidates as star campaigners in MP.

Former Union minister Pachouri, who joined the BJP from Congress earlier this month, has been included in the list.

BJP chief JP Nadda, party's state unit president VD Sharma, Union ministers Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari, Faggan Singh Kulaste, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Smriti Irani and Virendra Kumar Khatik are among the 40 key figures chosen to campaign for its candidates.

Polling on 29 seats of Madhya Pradesh will be held in four phases – April 19, April 26, May 7 and May 13.

MP’s deputy CMs Jagdish Devda and Rajendra Shukla and their peers Devendra Fadnavis (Maharashtra) and Keshav Prasad Maurya (Uttar Pradesh) are a part of the list, which also includes ex-CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan and MP cabinet ministers like Prahlad Patel, Kailash Vijayvargiya, Aidal Singh Kansana and Tulsi Silawat.

Former state ministers Gopal Bhargava and Narottam Mishra, and Union ex-minister Satyanarayan Jatia have also been picked for the task.

Of the 29 seats in the state, the BJP had won 28 in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, with the remaining seat – Chhindwara – going to Congress’ Nakul Nath.

In the first phase on April 19, Sidhi, Shahdol (ST), Jabalpur, Mandla (ST), Balaghat and Chhindwara will go to the poll.

According to poll officials, about 5.65 crore voters are eligible to exercise their franchise in the state.

The Congress has so far announced the candidates for 22 seats. The BJP has declared candidates in all 29 constituencies.

The Congress is yet to announce the candidates for Khandwa, Vidisha, Damoh, Guna, Gwalior and Morena seats. It has left the Khajuraho constituency for the Samajwadi Party under a seat-sharing agreement.