Congress president Sonia Gandhi, who represents Rae Bareli in the Lok Sabha, does not figure among the party's star campaigners for the fourth phase of Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh.
The fourth phase poll on February 23 will see elections in five Assembly constituencies of Bachhrawan (SC), Harchandpur, Rae Bareli, Sareni and Unchahar that come under the Rae Bareli Lok Sabha constituency represented by Sonia Gandhi.
While party's interim chief Sonia Gandhi and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh have not been included in the list for the fourth phase of UP polls, sources cited health issues as the reason for omitting their names.
Congress has also dropped actor-turned-politician and former Uttar Pradesh party president Raj Babbar from the fourth phase campaign. This comes days after it left Lok Sabha MP Manish Tewari from its Punjab list. There were speculations of Babbar leaving the Congress and joining the Samajwadi Party. He was listed as a star campaigner along with Ghulam Nabi Azad in the first phase of UP polls.
Senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad and former party chief Rahul Gandhi and AICC general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra are among the 30 star campaigners that the party has named for the fourth phase of Uttar Pradesh assembly polls.
Azad, the former leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha, is a prominent leader of the 'Group of 23' who sought organisational overhaul and has been critical of the party leadership.
The Congress on Sunday released its list of star campaigners for the fourth phase of assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh on February 23.
Among the other star campaigners include Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel. Former Rajasthan deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot, who had rebelled against the Congress government in the state, is also among the star campaigners for the fourth phase of Uttar Pradesh assembly elections.
Party leaders from Uttar Pradesh, Salman Khurshid, Pramod Tiwari, PL Punia, Rajiv Shukla, Ajay Kumar Lallu and Aradhana Mishra 'Mona' have also been named as star campaigners by the party. Besides, former cricketer Mohd Azharuddin, Maharashtra cabinet minister Varsha Gaekwad, Gujarat PCC working president Hardik Patel and Rajya Sabha member Deepinder Singh Hooda are also in the list of party's star campaigners. AICC minorities cell head Imran Pratapgarhi has also been named the star campaigner besides party spokesperson Supriya Shrinate among others.
Meanwhile, the Uttar Pradesh Congress has suspended four of its office-bearers, including party's Balrampur district chief Anuj Singh, for six years over charges of indiscipline. The other three suspended members are party's Balrampur district vice-president Akhtar Hussain, district general secretary Vinay Mishra and Deepak Mishra. The four accused party members allegedly attempted to assault All India Congress Committee national secretary Satyanarayan Patel during a party meeting in Balrampur district last Friday. It is believed that the meeting was regarding ticket distribution for the upcoming Uttar Pradesh assembly elections.
Satyanarayan Patel is a former MLA and is considered close to the party high command. When asked about the matter, Congress party's Balrampur district chief Anuj Singh said that the allegations against him were 'baseless'.
"I have been a disciplined soldier of the party for 30 years. There was no assault. Some people were behaving indecently and we only tried to stop that. I will put my point across and also communicate the same to Sonia Gandhi," he said.
