Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, are among the 40 star campaigners for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for the Karnataka Assembly elections, scheduled on 10 May.
The saffron party however has left out a prominent young face, Tejasvi Surya – a member of parliament (MP) from Bengaluru South.
The 32-year-old, who was recently in news for allegedly opening the emergency exit gate of an airliner, is the president of the BJP's youth wing – the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha. He was also the star campaigner for Tripura elections, making his omission a surprise.
According to the BJP, Tejasvi Surya was "not excluded" from campaigning. "The party drew up the list of campaigners and sent it to the Election Commission of India which approved the list. There is nothing more to be said about this. There is no concern," a BJP leader told The Quint on condition of anonymity. The leader did not explain why Surya did not make it to the campaigners list in the first place.