Manish Tewari, Ghulam Nabi Azad missing from Cong star campaigners' list for Punjab

The 117-member Punjab Assembly will go to the polls on February 20, while the counting of votes will be taken up on March 10

Prominent G-23 leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad and Manish Tewari on Friday did not find space in a list of star campaigners for the upcoming Punjab Assembly elections in curious omissions by Congress.

The absence of Azad, who was listed as a star campaigner for Uttar Pradesh earlier, from the list comes a week after the Narendra Modi government announced Padma Bhushan for him.

Tewari’s case is equally curious as he is an MP from Punjab and currently campaigning for his party’s candidates. Both Azad and Tewari were among 23 Congress leaders who wrote to party president Sonia Gandhi in August 2020 seeking clarity on the leadership issue.

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Tewari was also considered close to former Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, who left the party after being asked to quit last year. He had also tweeted against Punjab Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu, who led the rebellion against Amarinder, and also took potshots at the new Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi.

However, two prominent leaders who also made remarks against the state leadership Sunil Jakhar and Pratap Singh Bajwa were included in the list. Sidhu and Channi are also in the list.

Other G-23 leaders Anand Sharma and Bhupinder Singh Hooda have been named in the list too.

Congress General Secretary (Organisation) K C Venugopal informed the Election Commission about the list of star campaigners on Friday, which also include party chief Sonia Gandhi, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, former Congress president Rahul Gandhi and Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi.

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However, Sonia and Singh are unlikely to hit the campaign trail owing to their health condition. The expenses for star campaigners’ election programmes are counted under the expenses of parties and not that of candidates.

Other prominent names include chief ministers Ashok Gehlot (Rajasthan) and Bhupesh Baghel (Chhattisgarh). Sachin Pilot, who rebelled against Gehlot, as well as Hooda's son Deepender Hooda, a Rajya Sabha MP, are also in the list.

Senior Congress leader Ambika Soni, former Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar, Congress General Secretaries Randeep Surjewala and Ajay Maken, state in-charge Harish Chaudhary, Haryana Congress chief Kumari Selja and former MP Rajiv Shukla also are part of the star campaigners.

Punjab MP Ravneet Singh Bittoo, Mahila Congress chief Netta D’Souza, Youth Congress president B V Srinivas, former Bihar MP Ranjeet Ranjan and other party leaders Imran Pratapgarhi, Amarinder Singh Raja Warring, Amrita Dhawan, Raminder Awla and Tajender Singh Bitto are also in the list.

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