Tewari's exclusion from campaigners list for Punjab kicks up row

It was a tweet by former President Pranab Mukherjee's son Abhijit Mukherjee that evoked the chain reaction

A day before Congress' crucial announcement on CM face, the divide in the Punjab unit of Congress came out in open with Lok Sabha MP Manish Tewari mincing no words in voicing his anguish at the party dropping him from the list of star campaigners for the polls on February 20.

It was a tweet by former President Pranab Mukherjee's son Abhijit Mukherjee, who switched over to TMC from Congress last year, that evoked the chain reaction.

Mukherjee tweeted "sad state of affairs in Punjab Congress as they exclude a prominent senior congress leader, MP from Punjab & former minister Manish Tewari Ji from the list of star campaigners in poll-bound Punjab! Such narrow-minded steps will never help Congress to win elections!"

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

Responding Tewari said, he would have been surprised if it would have been the other way around. "The reasons have been a Public Affair now for quite a while," he said.

Mukherjee said, "Our people with their votes are the only answer to such a bipartisan mentality! Come what may, you shall always remain indomitable! You have always been one of the finest parliamentarians I have seen & that has been my late father’s opinion too." Tewari recalled how the senior Mukherjee had always been very affectionate to him.

While Tewari's name does not figure in the list of star campaigners, Tewari is indeed campaigning for the party candidates and is sharing photos of his campaign on Twitter timeline.

Tewari's name missing from the campaign list has evoked some surprise as despite being part of the G-23 group of leaders, had sought radical changes in the functioning of the party leadership, was not known for being very critical in his remarks unlike some other leaders from the Group. Tewari, who had NSUI and Youth Congress background, was close to late Rajiv Gandhi, whose photos he had frequently shared on Twitter even in May last year.

Also Read | 'Punjab needs serious people': Manish Tewari attacks Channi, Sidhu

Among prominent leaders missing in the list of 30 star campaigners released by Congress on Saturday for Punjab were G-23 leaders Tewari and Ghulam Nabi Azad while some others found their place. While Tewari had on the last few occasions voiced criticism of Sidhu in a veiled and unveiled manner, Azad recently got into a row after the government nominated him for Padma awards.

Tewari, an MP from Anandpur Sahib, is the only Hindu MP among 13 Lok Sabha MPs of Congress from the state and is believed to have a good following among the migrant population of UP and Bihar living in Punjab.

While there is a strong buzz in Congress that Rahul Gandhi may declare the name of the party's CM candidate for Punjab tomorrow, Tewari had a different take on the matter and is while the party can decide who will lead the election campaign of the party and be the face of the campaign, the right to elect Chief Minister lies with the elected MLAs in a democracy.

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