Congress dumps dissenters from West Bengal star campaigner list

Dissenters within the Congress were missing from the list of star campaigners in the high-stakes election to the West Bengal Assembly with the Gandhi family, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Sachin Pilot tasked with the job to take the party's message to the masses.

A list of 30-star campaigners released by the Congress includes Navjyot Singh Sidhu, Abhijeet Mukherjee, Mohammad Azharuddin and Chief Ministers Amarinder Singh, Ashok Gehlot and Bhupesh Baghel.

Those who have not made it to the list include Kapil Sibal, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Manish Tewari and Anand Sharma, who were among the 23 leaders who had raised a banner of revolt in the Congress virtually questioning the leadership of the party.

Jitin Prasada, one of the signatories to the letter signed by the G-23 leaders, made peace with the organisation soon after the revolt in August last year. Prasada, a former Union minister, was appointed AICC in-charge of West Bengal and finds a place in the list of star campaigners.

Another dissenter Akhilesh Prasad Singh, who also made peace with the leadership, also finds a mention.

The other star campaigners include Mallikarjun Kharge, B K Hariprasad, Kamal Nath, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Salman Khurshid, RPN Singh, Randeep Singh Surjewala, Pawan Khera and Deepender Hooda.

At least seven leaders of the G-23 had assembled in Jammu on February 27, expressing concern at a public rally over the weakening of the Congress party.

The remarks by senior leader Sibal, Sharma among others had left the Congress fuming. The party reminded the leaders that elections had been declared for five states and it would have been better if they had campaigned for the party there, instead of nursing wounds in Jammu.

Later, Azad had said that he along with other ‘dissenters’ would campaign for the party in the coming Assembly elections, as per the directions of the party or requests by individual candidates.

Congress spokesman Pawan Khera said some more names would figure in the list of star campaigners in different phases of elections and also for other states.