Apart from Rahul and Sonia, Congress list includes a mix of young and old leaders like Sachin Pilot, Jyotiraditya Scindia and ex-PM Manmohan Singh.
New Delhi: The Congress party has come out with a list of top leaders to campaign for the Gujarat elections in an apparent response to BJP’s mammoth poll preparations that includes a one-day blitzkrieg by its top leaders.
Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi will start his fifth Gujarat tour from 24 November for two days, covering Porbandar and Ahmedabad, party sources said.
Besides, the Congress list includes Punjab CM Capt. Amarinder Singh and former chief ministers Sheila Dikshit, Harish Rawat, Sushil Kumar Shinde andAshok Chavan.
Senior leaders such as P. Chidambaram, Jairam Ramesh, Meira Kumar, Anand Sharma, Kamal Nath, Kapil Sibal and youth icons such as Jyotiraditya Scindia and Sachin Pilot also figure in the list, party sources told ThePrint.
Some of these top guns will be in Gujarat from 25 November, addressing press conferences and public meetings.
The sources said that the senior leaders will be sent on a rotational basis to ensure that around a dozen top functionaries stay in Gujarat at any point of timeuntil December 13, the day when the campaigning for the second phase of Gujarat polls comes to an end, sources added.
Besides, six Congress spokespersons have been asked to be in Gujarat from 27 to 14 December. They include Randeep Surjewala, Sanjay Nirupam, Priyanka Chaturvedi, Pawan Khera, Jaiveer Shergil and Charan Singh Sapra.
Nirupam has been asked to station himself in Surat for all these days while the others will be in Ahmedabad and will be sent to different places based on requirements.
There will be separate campaigns by Congress president Sonia Gandhi and former PM Manmohan Singh. None of these leaders will, however, accompany Rahul during his campaign in Gujarat, the sources said, hinting at his imminent elevation in the party.