Congress on Wednesday released its list of 40 star campaigners for Karnataka Assembly elections, which include new entrant Jagadish Shettar, actress-politicians Ramya, Sadhukokila and Umashree, cricketer-politician Mohd Azharuddin and three Chief Ministers Ashok Gehlot, Bhupesh Baghel and Sukhvinder Singh Sukku.
All the predictable names from party chief Mallikarjun Kharge, former party presidents Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, General Secretaries Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, KC Venugopal, Jairam Ramesh and Randeep Surjewala, former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Karnataka Congress president DK Shivakumar are on the list.
Top Karnataka leaders BK Hariprasad, G Parameshwara, KH Muniyappa, MB Patil and M Veerappa Moily are also among the star campaigners, whose expenditure for campaign are not added to candidate’s spending but to the party’s. Former Minister Zameer Ahmed Khan is also on the list.
In a bid to use former Chief Minister Shettar, who left the BJP to join Congress after being denied a seat, especially on the Lingayat belt, the party has included him on the list. However, Laxman Savadi, the former Deputy Chief Minister who exited the BJP and is now fighting on a Congress ticket, is not on the list.
Interestingly, only two of the five Working Presidents Satish Jarkiholi and Ramalinga Reddy appear on the list.
Divya Spandana (Ramya) is among the star campaigners as filmmaker-actor Sadhukokila. In what is seen as a move to placate after denying tickets, Congress has also named former ministers HM Revanna and Umashree, also an actress, on the list.
Two former Maharashtra Chief Ministers Prithviraj Chavan and Ashok Chavan have been added on the list with an aim to utilise them to extensively campaign in districts which shares a border with their home state. Telangana Congress chief Revanth Reddy is also on the list as the party wants to use him in Hyderabad-Karnataka region.
While Shashi Tharoor, who did not find space in the star campaigners’ list in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh, has been put on the list, former Rajasthan Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot does not get into the list.
Shivakumar’s brother DK Suresh, Syed Nasir Hussain and GC Chandrashekhar, all MPs, and Youth Congress president BV Srinivas are also among the star campaigners along with senior leaders P Chidambaram and Ramesh Chennithala as well as youth leaders Kanhaiya Kumar and Imran Pratapgarhi.