Hyderabad, Oct 21 (IANS) Union Ministers Nirmala Sitharaman, Arjun Ram Meghwal, G. Kishan Reddy, Bandi Sanjay Kumar, B. Srinivasa Varma and Rajasthan Chief Minister Bhajan Lal Sharma are among the 40 star campaigners announced by the BJP for the by-elections to Jubilee Hills Assembly in Telangana.

BJP’s young leaders K. Annamalai, Tejasvi Surya and party MPs D.K. Aruna and D. Purandeswari are among the key leaders who will campaign for the saffron party candidate for the November 11 by-election.

The party’s central leadership announced the list of star campaigners hours after its candidate, L. Deepak Reddy, filed the nomination.

BJP’s OBC Mora president and MP Dr K. Laxman, the party’s national general secretary in charge of Telangana Sunil Bansal, state party president N. Ramchander Rao, MPs Eatala Rajender, Dharampuri Arvind, Konda Vishweswar Reddy, M. Raghunandan Rao and Godem Nagesh, Andhra Pradesh health minister Satya Kumar, party’s Andhra Pradesh unit president PNV Madhav are the other key star campaigners for the party.

Meanwhile, Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) has also announced a list of 40 star campaigners for the by-election.

BRS President and former Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR), BRS working president K. T. Rama Rao, and senior leader and former minister T. Harish Rao are among the star campaigners.

Former ministers Srinivas Yadav, Padmarao Goud, Mahmood Ali, Prashanth Reddy, E. Dayakar Rao, Srinivas Goud, Niranjan Reddy, Jagadish Reddy, Gangula Kamalakar and Sabitha Indra Reddy are other prominent leaders who will campaign for the party.

The by-election is necessitated by the death of Maganti Gopinath, who was elected on the BRS ticket in 2023. The party has fielded his wife, Maganti Sunitha.

The ruling Congress party has named Naveen Yadav as its candidate.

BJP’s Deepak Reddy filed the nomination on the last day on Tuesday. He had contested unsuccessfully from Jubilee Hills in 2023.

Gopinath of BRS had defeated former Indian cricket captain and Congress candidate Mohammed Azharuddin by 16,337 votes to win the seat for a third consecutive term.

In a multi-cornered contest, Gopinath had secured 80,549 votes while Azharuddin had polled 64,212 votes. Deepak Reddy was in third position with 25,866 votes.

–IANS

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