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Sonia Gandhi, Manmohan Singh among Congress’ star campaigners for first phase
UP elections: Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, party MP Rahul Gandhi and All India Congress Committee general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will campaign for the party.
The top leadership of the Congress will campaign for the party for the first phase of Uttar Pradesh’s assembly elections, according to a list released on Monday.
They would include party chief Sonia Gandhi, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, party MP Rahul Gandhi and All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.
UP Congress chief Ajay Kumar Lallu, senior leaders RPN Singh and Ghulam Nabi Azad, Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot, his Chhattisgarh counterpart Bhupesh Baghel and former Rajasthan deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot will also campaign in UP.
Former Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union (JNUSU) president Kanhaiya Kumar, who joined the Congress in September last year, was also named. This is the first time that the 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 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,” he said in a letter.
The first phase will be held on Februrary 10. Six other phases of the election are scheduled for February 14, 20, 23, 27, and March 3 and 7. The results will be declared on March 10.
Last week, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had released its list of 30 campaigners for the UP elections. While many star campaigners like Prime Minister Narendra Modi and home minister Amit Shah were named, party MPs and mother-son duo Maneka Gandhi and Varun Gandhi were excluded.
Given the constraints of campaigning because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the parties are likely to hit the campaign trail in Uttar Pradesh in a phased manner, including door-to-door campaigning and closed-door meetings.
