Senior Congress leader Manish Tewari made a remark at his party following the removal of his name from the list of star campaigners for the forthcoming Punjab Assembly elections. He pointed out that the omission of his name was “no state secret.”
Congress general secretary K C Venugopal released a list of 30 star campaigners for Punjab Assembly elections on Friday. The list has names of prominent leaders including Rahul Gandhi, Manmohan Singh, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Sonia Gandhi. The list doesn’t mention the name of Ghulam Nabi Azad along with Tewari.
“I would have been pleasantly surprised if it would have been the other way around. The reasons are also no state secret,” Tewari said. He made this remark in response to the former Congress MP Abhijit Mukherjee’s observation regarding the omission of several leaders from the list.
“Sad state of affairs in INC Punjab as they exclude a prominent senior congress leader, MP from Punjab & former minister Manish Tewari Ji from the list of star campaigners in poll-bound Punjab!… Such narrow-minded steps will never help Congress to win elections!” said Mukherjee, who joined Trinamool Party last year.
Azad and Teware are among the G-23 leaders who rebelled against Congress and wrote to Sonia Gandhi, showcasing concerns for radical changes inside the party. However, other leaders from the syndicate including Bhupinder Sing and Anand Sharma have been named on the list.
Azad was earlier named on the list of star campaigners for the first phase of the UP Assembly elections. Additionally, Tewari remained critical of the party, however, campaigning in Punjab for the elections.