J&K polls: Kharge, Rahul among Congress' star campaigners for phase 1

New Delhi: Among the 40 "star campaigners" whose names were revealed on Saturday for the first round of Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir, which is set for September 18, are Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, CPP Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, former party chief Rahul Gandhi, and his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.

The list, issued by Congress General Secretary K.C. Venugopal, also includes his own name besides some prominent party leaders like Jairam Ramesh, Ambika Soni, Ajay Maken, Salman Khurshid, and Kanhaiya Kumar, among others.

The names of Himachal Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, former Punjab CM Charanjit Singh Chhanni, and ex-Rajasthan Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot also feature in the list.

Election to the 90-member Jammu and Kashmir Assembly will be held in three phases -- on September 18, September 25, and October 1. The ballots will be counted on October 8.

This will be the first Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir since 2014, and also the first after the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019.

The Congress has already stitched an alliance with the National Conference for the elections.

Here is the complete list of Congress' star campaigners for the first phase of the Jammu and Kashmir polls:

1. Mallikarajun Kharge

2. Rajani Patil

3. Sonia Gandhi

4. Rajiv Shukla

5. Rahul Gandhi

6. Manish Tewari

7. Priyanka Gandhi Vadra

8. Imran Pratapgarhi

9. K.C. Venugopal

10. Kishori Lal Sharma

11. Ajay Maken

12. Ranjit Ranjan

13. Ambika Soni

14. Raman Bhalla

15. Bharatsinh Solanki

16. Tarachand

17. Tariq Hameed Karra

18. Chaudhary Lal Singh

19. Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu

20. Peerzada Mohd. Sayeed

21. Jairam Ramesh

22. Imran Masood

23. Ghulam Ahmad Mir

24. Pawan Khera

25. Sachin Pilot

26. Supriya Shrinate

27. Mukesh Agnihotri

28. Kanhaiya Kumar

29. Charanjit Singh Channi

30. Manoj Yadav

31. Salman Khurshid

32. Shahnawaz Chaudhary

33. Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa

34. Rajesh Lilothia

35. Amrinder Singh Raja Warring

36. Alka Lamba

37. Syed Nasir Hussain

38. Srinivas B.V.

39. Vikar Rasool Wani

40. Neeraj Kundan

With inputs from IANS