The Congress on Friday announced the list of star campaigners for the first phase of the West Bengal Assembly polls on March 27. What’s eye-grabbing is that Congress ignored some of the big leaders who were part of the G-23, those who voiced for organisational reforms in the party post consecutive drubbing in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections following by humiliating defeats in key states.
Besides Ghulam Nabi Azad, the names of other senior Congress leaders Kapil Sibal, Anand Sharma and Manish Tewari also do not figure out in the list of 30-star campaigners for the assembly elections in West Bengal.
The move not to include Ghulam Nabi Azad in the list of star campaigners for West Bengal, which has a significant Muslim population, may also be considered as a message for the resentful leaders by the Congress leadership.
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This comes as the Congress leadership had earlier asked the disgruntled leaders to work for the party in states going to polls. It had become interesting to see whether these leaders would be included in the list of star campaigners.
Congress leader Akhilesh Prasad Singh, who is a part of G-23, has, however, been included in the star campaigners’ list which also has party’s interim chief Sonia Gandhi, former prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh and party leaders Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Kamal Nath, Captain Amarinder Singh, Sachin Pilot, Navjot Singh Sidhu, Abhijit Mukherjee and Ashok Gehlot besides others.
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Congress Party’s West Bengal unit posted the list on its official website.
The party has, however, not yet announced its list of star campaigners for Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.