Kharge, Gandhis among star campaigners of Congress in J&K

Srinagar: Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra have been named as star campaigners of the party among 27 others for Jammu and Kashmir in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

The list also include Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu and Revanth Reddy, chief ministers of Himachal Pradesh and Telangana respectively. Former CM of Uttarakhand Harish Rawat and actor-turned-politician Raj Babbar will also canvas in the UT.

The star campaigners are expected to ignite hope and rally support for the party candidates in Jammu-Reasi and Udhampur-Doda LS seats. The list of star campaigners for the Lok Sabha polls in J&K was submitted by Congress general secretary KC Venugopal to the Secretary Election Commission of India.

As the Congress is contesting only on these two seats in the Union Territory (UT), the party campaign is expected to be confined to the Jammu region only. The Congress has decided to leave three Kashmir seats for the I.N.D.I.A. block candidates.

The Congress is facing the challenge of political relevance in the UT in view of its wipeout in the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections, as it couldn’t win even a single seat. This time the Congress candidates from Jammu and Udhampur constituencies are being supported by National Conference and People’s Democratic Party, the I.N.D.I.A. bloc constituents.

Rahul Gandhi had visited Jammu and Kashmir in January 2023 during Bharat Jodo Yatra and later had also visited the valley for a private trip along with his sister Priyanka. However, this will be the first visit of Kharge to the UT as the Congress president.

The Congress has so already declared its candidates for Udhampur and Jammu seats. Choudhary Lal Singh, who had recently rejoined the Congress, will be a challenger to sitting Udhampur MP and Union Minister Jitendra Singh.

Former minister and Congress leader Raman Bhalla will challenge BJP's sitting MP Jugal Kishore from Jammu seat. In 2019 Kishore had defeated Bhalla while in 2014, he had defeated Congress candidate Madan Lal Sharma.