Gujarat Election 2022: Shashi Tharoor, Anand Sharma names missing from Congress' star campaigners

The Congress on Tuesday (November 15) released its list of star campaigners for the upcoming Gujarat Assembly elections, naming newly-elected party President Malliakrjun Kharge, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi among others.

However, what comes as a surprise is the party missing several senior leaders including Anand Sharma, Shashi Tharoor, Manish Tewari and Randeep Singh Surjewala in the list.

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Sharma, Tharoor and Tewari were part of the G-23 grouping that wrote a letter to Sonia Gandhi in 2020 seeking an organisational overhaul and a full-time president. Recently, Tharoor had unsuccessfully contested the Congress presidential polls against Kharge.

The other leaders who have been given the task of campaigning for the party for the first phase of two-phase elections include party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and his bete noire Sachin Pilot and Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel.

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Jignesh Mevani and Kanhaiya Kumar, both of whom rose to fame with their fierce opposition to the Narendra Modi government over the past few years, have also been named in the Congress' star campaigner list.

The BJP, which has been in power in the state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi for over two decades, is hopeful of maintaining its uninterrupted winning streak in the state Assembly polls since 1995.

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Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has made its entry into the election race and added an extra dimension to the state's traditional bipolar contest between the BJP and its main challenger Congress.

Gujarat will go to polls in two phases - on December 1 and 5, and the counting of votes will be taken up on December 8.