Punjab polls: Not surprised, says Manish Tewari on his absence from star campaigners list

After prominent G-23 leaders of the Congress did not find space on the list of star campaigners for the Punjab assembly elections, Congress MP Manish Tewari on Saturday said that he would have been surprised if it had been any different.”I would have been pleasantly surprised if it would have been the other way around. The reasons are also no state secret,” Tewari said in a tweet.The Congress MP was responding to the news report on the absence of prominent Congress leaders from the star campaigner list and also to former TMC MP Abhijit Mukherjee.

Mukherjee said in a tweet, “Sad state of affairs in Punjab Congress as they exclude a prominent senior congress leader, MP from Punjab and former minister Manish Tewari Ji from the list of star campaigners in poll-bound Punjab! Such narrow-minded steps will never help Congress to win elections!”The former TMC MP said in another tweet, “Brother ManishTewari Ji, our people with their votes are the only answer to such bipartisan mentality! Come what may, you shall always remain indomitable! You have always been one of the finest parliamentarians I have seen and that has been my late father’s opinion too.”Earlier on Friday, Congress released the list of star campaigners for the upcoming Punjab Assembly elections and the names of prominent G-23 leaders of the Congress Ghulam Nabi Azad and Manish Tewari were missing.Also, barring Ambika Soni and Pratap Singh Bajwa from Punjab, many party MPs have not got a place in it. Whereas, the name of former Speaker of Lok Sabha Meira Kumar is included in lieu of the Dalit vote bank. At the same time, the name of Delhi Mahila Congress President Amrita Dhawan is also surprising.Along with this, four big names of Haryana, Bhupinder Hooda, Randeep Surjewala, Deepender Hooda, and Kumari Selja have been given place. Questions have been raised that, instead of several MPs from Punjab, four leaders from Haryana were included whereas, the Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) dispute of Punjab-Haryana is not hidden from anyone.The biggest question is about Manish Tewari, the Hindu face who has won from a seat like Anandpur Sahib, he has been sidelined. There are around 40 per cent Hindus in the State. Earlier, another Hindu face of the party, Sunil Jakhar, had expressed the pain of not being made the Chief Minister despite having the support of 42 MLAs, during change of guard after Captain Amarinder Singh stepped down in September last year, claiming that it was because he is a Hindu. However, Jakhar has been given a place in the list of star campaigners for Punjab polls.Punjab will go to the polls on February 20. The counting of votes will take place on March 10.