Congress had named 40 leaders as star campaigners of the party for campaigning in the seven-phase Lok Sabha elections, but not even a quarter of them were seen active in the field. Even after the completion of campaigning for the seven phases of elections, the candidates did not even see some former state presidents who were made star campaigners by the party.
Former Congress president Sonia Gandhi, who retired from active politics due to poor health condition, too made a brief appearance to seek vote for her son Rahul Gandhi in Rae Bareli.
After the party’s alliance with Samajwadi Party in UP, Congress was allotted just 17 out of 80 Lok Sabha seats in UP. This also annoyed many senior leaders who were looking for a chance to once again try their luck in the ongoing parliamentary elections. After finding that they were left with no other choice but to seek vote for the SP candidates in their strongholds, they preferred to sit in their homes. Rising mercury was another reason which kept the veteran Congress leaders away from campaign trail
Among the star campaigners, the Congress included national leaders as well as those state leaders who are known among the public due to their organisational or constitutional post. In the elections, Congress national president Mallikarjun Kharge, former national president Rahul Gandhi and national general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, apart from national general secretary and UP in-charge Avinash Pandey sweated a lot, but due to some reasons, the other star campaigners were relatively less active.
Former chief minister of Chhattisgarh, Bhupesh Baghel, former chief minister of Rajasthan, Ashok Gehlot, and former chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, Digvijay Singh, along with party veteran and Rajya Sabha member Pramod Tiwari were also seen active in the election campaign.
On the contrary, many former state presidents were not active in the election campaign. These leaders included former state president Salman Khurshid, Raj Babbar, Dr Nirmal Khatri, Ajay Kumar Lallu and Brijlal Khabri. It was said that Dr Khatri was ill while Raj Babbar was later fielded from Gurugram (Haryana).
The current UPCC president, Ajay Rai, himself could not give the required time for campaigning on other seats due to being in the election fray from Varanasi. As a result of this more responsibility fell on Congress Legislature Party leader Aradhana Mishra ‘Mona’.
Similarly, former Union minister Pradeep Jain Aditya, who was made a star campaigner, could not come out of Jhansi due to being a candidate himself.
Party candidates got organisational help from the state in-charge and co-state in-charges, while in the case of public meetings or roadshows during the elections campaigns, they got support from Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi along with Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav.
Supriya Srinet, president of the social media department of Congress, who was included in the list of star campaigners, also played a role in election management.
