Dehradun: Hours after Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra released the party’s manifesto for this month’s Uttarakhand assembly elections Wednesday, the party also announced the names of its star campaigners for the state. The list included Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi, but that state’s Congress president and former cricketer Navjot Singh Sidhu did not feature in it.
उत्तराखंड विधानसभा चुनाव के लिए पार्टी द्वारा घोषित स्टार प्रचारकों की सूची। pic.twitter.com/NT8IgnYOhR
— Uttarakhand Congress (@INCUttarakhand) February 2, 2022
The list of 30 leaders also included the names of Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, former PM Manmohan Singh, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, as well as Ghulam Nabi Azad, Sachin Pilot, Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel, Randeep Surjewala, Hardik Patel and Ragini Nayak.
The Congress is aggressively campaigning in Uttarakhand and is expecting Rahul Gandhi to visit the state in the next few days. Speaking to ThePrint, senior Congress leader Harish Rawat said Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who launched the manifesto Wednesday, will also visit the state again.
A sign for Sidhu?
The fact that Sidhu’s name has been omitted is being seen by many in the Congress as a sign of things to come. In October last year, the party had included Sidhu among its star campaigners for the bypolls in Himachal Pradesh, even though just days before, he had submitted his resignation as the Punjab Congress president.
Many in the Congress were expecting Sidhu to be a part of the list of star campaigners for the 14 February assembly elections, especially since the district of Udham Singh Nagar has a sizeable Sikh population.
“The Sikh community dominates villages in the Udham Singh Nagar district of Kumaon. Sidhu is a good orator and a crowd puller. His name not finding a mention is surprising,” said a senior Congress leader in Uttarakhand, on the condition of anonymity.
However, another party leader played down the issue and said that with Punjab too gearing up for elections just six days after the 14 February voting in Uttarakhand, Sidhu, as the state president, would not have time for Uttarakhand. “As far as Sikh voters are concerned, Punjab CM has been included in the list along with other chief ministers. Sidhu is busy with Punjab and managing the campaign there. This will not impact us negatively,” said another Congress leader, who did not wish to be named.
Sikh voters have traditionally had a decisive say in nine of the 11 assembly constituencies in Udham Singh Nagar, and BJP had won all but one of them in 2017. The Congress is confident of getting the Sikhs’ support this time, because many Sikh farmers had participated in and even led the agitation against the now-repealed farm laws introduced by the Modi government in 2020.
(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)
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