Varun and Maneka Gandhi dropped from BJP's star campaigner list for UP Polls 2022

The BJP released a list of 30-star campaigners on Wednesday with brand names like Narendra Modi and JP Nadda on top.

New Delhi: BJP leaders and mother-son duo from the Gandhi family, Maneka and Varun Gandhi have been dropped from the BJP’s star campaigners list for Uttar Pradesh Assembly Elections 2022. The saffron party released a list of 30-star campaigners on Wednesday with brand names like Narendra Modi and JP Nadda on top.

However, both Maneka and Varun Gandhi has emerged victorious multiple times from Uttar Pradesh’s Sultanpur and Pilibhit in the Lok Sabha Elections.

This comes after the mother-son duo were also dropped from BJP’s National Executive Committee raising speculations regarding an in-fight amid the party members.

Varun Gandhi’s tweet on the Lakhimpur Kheri killings

Soon after the Lakhimpur Khri incident, in which BJP leader and Union MOS Ajay Mishra Teni`s son was arrested for allegedly running over his SUV on a group of protesting farmers, Varun Gandhi took to Twitter to question his party on farmers issue and blamed the BJP led Centre and the state government for not taking action quick enough to arrest Ashish Mishra Teni.

The Pilibhit MP was also speculated to join the Trinamool Congress amid tensions with the BJP camp

Other names on the list

The first name on the star-campaigners list is Prime Minister Narendra Modi followed by party national president JP Nadda.

 Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and BJP candidate from Gorakhpur Yogi Adityanath also features on that list of star campaigners. Others on that list include Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Home Minister Amit Shah and state president Swatantra Dev Singh. Union Ministers Dharmendra Pradhan, Smriti Irani, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Dinesh Sharma Keshav Prasad Maurya were also on the list. Sanjeev Balyan and Radha Mohan Singh amongst others were on the list.

Given the constraints of campaigning because of the spread of COVID, the BJP is likely to hit the campaign trail in Uttar Pradesh in a phased-out manner doing door-to-door campaigning and from there on doing closed-door meetings which would allow 300 people.

BJP sources told ANI that the top leaders of the party including Home Minister Amit Shah and national president JP Nadda will start touring Uttar Pradesh starting the third week of January.

Uttar Pradesh assembly elections will be held in seven phases from February 10 to March 7. The polling in Uttar Pradesh will be held on February 10, 14, 20, 23, 27 and March 3 and 7.

(With ANI inputs)