<p>The BJP has decided to roll out the party's heavyweights for campaigning for the Assembly elections in Himachal Pradesh, where it is hoping to defeat the ruling Congress party.<br /><br />Four chief ministers and an array of Union ministers will hit the road for electioneering in the state besides Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah.<br /><br />Chief Ministers Shivraj Singh Chouhan (Madhya Pradesh), Yogi Adityanath (Uttar Pradesh), Trivendra Singh Rawat (Uttarakhand), M L Khattar (Haryana) and Jammu and Kashmir Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh figure in the list of star campaigners released by the BJP.<br /><br />Union Ministers Rajnath Singh, Arun Jaitley, Nitin Gadkari, Sushma Swaraj, J P Nadda, Smriti Irani, Thawarchand Gehlot, Uma Bharti, V K Singh and Vijay Sampla also figure in the list.<br /><br />Former Himachal Pradesh chief ministers P K Dhumal and Shanta Kumar, Lok Sabha member Anurag Thakur, state BJP chief Satpal Singh 'Satti', former Bihar BJP president Mangal Pandey and Bhojpuri actor-turned-politician Manoj Tiwari will also campaign for the party in the hill state.<br /><br />Chief Ministers of Maharashtra and Rajasthan, Devendra Fadnavis and Vasundhara Raje, are conspicuous by their omission from the star campaigners' list.<br /><br />With the Congress placing its bets on octogenarian Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, the BJP appears to have resisted from making a generational shift and is relying on the experience of two-time chief minister P K Dhumal.<br /><br />The state's politics is dominated largely by upper castes — Rajputs and Brahmins — who together constitute more than 50% of Himachal Pradesh's population.<br /><br />The state is also home to a large number of armed forces personnel.</p>
<p>The BJP has decided to roll out the party's heavyweights for campaigning for the Assembly elections in Himachal Pradesh, where it is hoping to defeat the ruling Congress party.<br /><br />Four chief ministers and an array of Union ministers will hit the road for electioneering in the state besides Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah.<br /><br />Chief Ministers Shivraj Singh Chouhan (Madhya Pradesh), Yogi Adityanath (Uttar Pradesh), Trivendra Singh Rawat (Uttarakhand), M L Khattar (Haryana) and Jammu and Kashmir Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh figure in the list of star campaigners released by the BJP.<br /><br />Union Ministers Rajnath Singh, Arun Jaitley, Nitin Gadkari, Sushma Swaraj, J P Nadda, Smriti Irani, Thawarchand Gehlot, Uma Bharti, V K Singh and Vijay Sampla also figure in the list.<br /><br />Former Himachal Pradesh chief ministers P K Dhumal and Shanta Kumar, Lok Sabha member Anurag Thakur, state BJP chief Satpal Singh 'Satti', former Bihar BJP president Mangal Pandey and Bhojpuri actor-turned-politician Manoj Tiwari will also campaign for the party in the hill state.<br /><br />Chief Ministers of Maharashtra and Rajasthan, Devendra Fadnavis and Vasundhara Raje, are conspicuous by their omission from the star campaigners' list.<br /><br />With the Congress placing its bets on octogenarian Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, the BJP appears to have resisted from making a generational shift and is relying on the experience of two-time chief minister P K Dhumal.<br /><br />The state's politics is dominated largely by upper castes — Rajputs and Brahmins — who together constitute more than 50% of Himachal Pradesh's population.<br /><br />The state is also home to a large number of armed forces personnel.</p>
