E-Paper
Sonia Gandhi, Manmohan Singh among Congress star campaigners for phase-1 UP polls
In a letter sent to the chief electoral officer of Uttar Pradesh, Congress general secretary KC Venugopal on Monday named the 30 star campaigners of the Indian National Congress for the state assembly polls.
The Congress on Monday released a list of 30 star campaigners for the first phase of the forthcoming Uttar Pradesh assembly election. The list included interim party chief Sonia Gandhi, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, party MP Rahul Gandhi and All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra among other leaders who are set to campaign for the grand old party in the high-stakes election.
Former Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union (JNUSU) president Kanhaiya Kumar, who joined the Congress in September last year, has also been made part of the star campaigners list for the UP elections. This is the first time that the former student leader will be campaigning for the grand old party ahead of a key assembly election after he jumped ship from the Communist Party of India (CPI) amid a barrage of criticism last year.
Congress general secretary KC Venugopal has sent the list of the star campaigners to the chief electoral officer of Uttar Pradesh.
The letter reads, “The following leaders of the Indian National Congress, who would be campaigning as per Section 77(1) of Representation of People Act, 1951, for the ensuing first phase of elections to the legislative assembly of Uttar Pradesh to be held on 10th February 2022”.
Here’s the list:
1. Sonia Gandhi
2. Manmohan Singh
3. Rahul Gandhi
4. Priyanka Gandhi Vadra
5. Ajay Kumar Lallu
6. Aradhana Misra ‘Mona’
7. Ghulam Nabi Azad
8. Ashok Gehlot
9. Bhupinder Singh Hooda
10. Bhupesh Baghel
11. Salman Khurshid
12. Raj Babbar
13. Pramod Tiwari
14. PL Punia
15. RPN Singh
16. Sachin Pilot
17. Pradeep Jain Aditya
18. Naseemuddin Siddiqui
19. Acharya Pramod Krishnam
20. Deeper Singh Hooda
21. Varsha Gaikwad
22. Hardik Patel
23. Phulo Devi Netam
24. Supriya Shrinate
25. Imran Pratapgarhi
26. Kanhaiya Kumar
27. Praniti Shinde
28. Dheeraj Gujjar
29. Rohit Chaudhary
30. Tauqeer Alam
The Uttar Pradesh assembly elections will be held in seven phases, starting from February 10 and ending on March 7.
The polling in Uttar Pradesh will be held on February 10, 14, 20, 23, 27, and March 3 and 7.
Last week, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had released its list of 30 campaigners for the UP assembly elections. While many star campaigners like Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah were seen on the list, party MPs and mother-son duo Maneka Gandhi and Varun Gandhi were excluded from the same.
Given the constraints of campaigning because of the spread of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19), the parties are likely to hit the campaign trail in Uttar Pradesh in a phased-out manner, including door-to-door campaigning and closed-door meetings.
