Uttar Pradesh polls: LK Advani is no longer a star campaigner

New Delhi: Making it clear that leaders like L.K. Advani, Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi are not wanted anymore to win the elections, the BJP has axed their names from the star campaigners’ list released on Saturday. Joining these two veterans are Sultanpur MP Varun Gandhi and Rajya Sabha member Vinay Katiyar.

This band of four have remained marginalised ever since the present dispensation led by BJP president Amit Shah took over. Union defence minister, Mr Manohar Parrikar will also be missing from campaigning in Uttar Pradesh as he is “busy” in Goa election, where the BJP seemed to be in a tricky situation.

Besides BJP’s poll mascot, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the saffron star campaigners in UP include, actor-turned-politician and Mathura MP Hema Malini, textiles minister Smriti Irani, Rajasthan Chief Minister  Vasundhara Raje, her Madhya Pradesh counterpart Shivraj Singh Chouhan, party’s Delhi unit chief and Bhojpuri superstar Manoj Tiwari, Union ministers Gen (retd) V.K. Singh, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Ram Vilas Paswan among others.

Meanwhile, the Hindutva brigade  will be represented by Union ministers Uma Bharati, Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, Sanjeev Baliyan and Gorakhpur MP Yogi Adityanath, among other leaders.