Chandigarh: Just two weeks ahead of the Assembly elections in Punjab, Congress party released its list of star campaigners for the poll bound state. However, what comes as a surprise is that many of the senior leaders and Punjab MPs names are not being included in this list.
The star campaigners list of Congress party includes 30 names including former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, party president Sonia Gandhi, leaders Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi, Chief Ministers Charanjit Singh Channi, Bhupesh Baghel, Ashok Gehlot and others.
Names of Punjab Congress Chief Navjot Singh Sidhu and former PCC Chief Sunil Jakhar have also been included. While just three MPs from Punjab got a place in this list, that is Ambika Soni, Partap Singh Bajwa and Ravneet Bittu.
It must be noted that neither former leader of Opposition, Rajya Sabha, Ghulam Nabi Azad nor Punjab Congress MP Manish Tewari's name have been included in the list, who were also a part of G23.
This move may widen the gap within Congress state unit of Punjab as many of the party leaders are upset over the decision of preferring many new names for the star campaigners list while neglecting the senior leaders. All India Mahila Congress President Netta D'Souza, Youth Congress President Srinivas BV and even Delhi Mahila Congress Chief Amrita Dhawan are also among the party's star campaigners for Punjab.
Some of the party leaders have alleged that the Congress' top leadership has been kept in dark to sideline the senior members and being advised to chose juniors over them. Also, 4 of the Haryana leaders have also been chosen despite of the fact that Punjab has an ongoing water dispute with the state.
Punjab Congress is already witnessing a tussle over the decision of choosing Chief Ministerial candidate ahead of the Assembly elections. While the final announcement will be made on the basis of tele-survey conducted by the party, both Channi as well as Siddhu has come out in open to prove themselves "worthy" for the post.
However, earlier today, Siddhu has again made a controversial remark claiming that "people at the top" want a weak Chief Minister who can dance to their tunes. This comes after reports started coming in that Channi is the front runner in Congress' tele-survey for CM post.
Meanwhile, another controversy erupted after a video of Sunil Jakhar got viral on social media where he had claimed that after the exit of Captain Amarinder Singh, 42 MLAs had voted in his favour to get appointed as the CM of Punjab. Later he also alleged that some leaders at the top suggested the party high command, not to appoint a Hindu CM in Punjab.
