Congress leadership appears to be sending a message to G-23 leaders through its list of star campaigners with the party on Sunday omitting actor-turned politician and former Uttar Pradesh party president Raj Babbar from the fourth phase campaign, days after it left Lok Sabha MP Manish Tewari from its Punjab list.
Interestingly, the leadership has retained Ghulam Nabi Azad, the leader of the G-23 that has demanded clarity on leadership issues and wrote to party chief Sonia Gandhi, in its list of star campaigners for the fourth phase of the UP Assembly elections though he was not in the Punjab list.
Perhaps for the first time in recent years, party chief Sonia Gandhi and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh are also not in the list for the fourth phase of UP polls with sources citing health issues as the reason for omitting their names. However, their names were in the Punjab list two days ago.
Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi and Congress General Secretary and UP in-charge Priyanka Gandhi are among the 30 leaders whose names Congress General Secretary (Organisation) Tariq Anwar has forwarded to the Election Commission for the fourth phase.
Babbar, who has been listed as star campaigner along with Azad in the first phase of UP polls, speculated to be leaving the Congress and joining the Samajwadi Party. Congress was also embarrassed by RPN Singh, who joined the BJP a day after the party named him in the first list of star campaigners.
Another G-23 leader Bhupinder Hooda is also not in the list though party sources said he was included in the list for the first phase, as he has considerable clout among Jats, who are predominantly staying in western UP, which goes to polls on February 20. His son and Rajya Sabha MP Deepender Hooda continues to be in the list.
Around ten leaders who found their names in the first phase are missing for the fourth phase with sources claiming that new faces are included in the region that goes to polls.
While Gujarat Congress Working president Hardik Patel has retained his space in the list, Kanhaiaya Kumar has been omitted this time.
Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi is added to the list along with cricketer-turned-politician and former Congress MP and senior leader Rajiv Shukla.
Chief Ministers Ashok Gehlot and Bhupesh Baghel, UP Congress president Ajay Kumar Lallu and Congress Legislature Party leader Aradhana Mishra Mona in the list.
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