Congress names Priyanka Gandhi as ‘star campaigner’ for UP polls

Lucknow: Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, daughter of Congress president Sonia Gandhi, will be campaigning for party candidates in Uttar Pradesh for the state assembly elections. Her name figured in the list of 40 star campaigners released by the Congress on Tuesday.

This will be for the first time that Priyanka would be electioneering in the state, beyond the family fiefdoms of Amethi and Rae Bareli, where she has canvassed for her mother and brother Rahul Gandhi in the past too.

Only a few days back, Priyanka successfully stitched up an alliance with the ruling Samajwadi Party (SP) in the state where Congress got 105 seats and the SP 298.

She will be campaigning in Amethi, Rae Bareli, Chandauli, Ghaziabad and Saharanpur.

The other high-profile star campaigners named by the Congress include former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Sonia Gandhi, Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi, former Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dixit, UPCC Chief Raj Babbar, Congress National General Secretary Ghulam Nabi Azad, former Lok Sabha speaker Meira Kumar, former Maharashtra Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde, Janardan Dwivedi, Ahmad Patel, Kamal Nath, Pramod Tiwari, Mukul Vasnik and Sanjay Singh.

The list also names Pradip Mathur, Nirmal Khatri, P.L. Punia, Ashok Gehlot, Bhupendra Singh Hudda, Salman Khursheed, Kumari Shailja, Randeep Singh Surjewala, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Manish Tiwari, Rajeev Shukla, Sachin Pilot, Deepender Singh Hooda, Shakil Ahmad, R.P.N. Singh, Naseeb Singh, Shobha Oza, Zuber Khan, Rana Goswami, Avinash Pandey and film actress Naghma.