Jaipur:The Congress on Thursday announced the names of star campaigners who would be rooting for the party candidates contesting the by-elections to the Mandawa and Khinwsar Assembly constituencies in Rajasthan, scheduled to be held on October 21.
While former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh finds top position among the list of star campaigners, there is, surprisingly, no mention of Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi or even former president Rahul Gandhi.
However, the list includes the name of Rameshwar Dudi who had levelled allegations of nepotism against Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot after his nomination for the Rajasthan Cricket Association president’s post against the CM’s son, Vaibhav Gehlot, was cancelled.
The other star campaigners include CM Gehlot, Sachin Pilot and Avinash Pandey, among other leaders from Rajasthan.
The Congress has fielded Rita Chaudhary and Harendra Mirdha from the Mandawa and Khinwsar seats, respectively.
To counter them, the BJP has named Sushila Seegda in Mandawa, and Narayan Beniwal of the Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP) as its candidates.
The BJP has formed an alliance with the RLP for the Khinwsar seat and hence has fielded Narayan Beniwal, who is Nagaur MP Hanuman Beniwal’s brother.
Hanuman vacated the Khinwsar seat after he was elected to the Lok Sabha.
Similarly, Narendra Khinchad from Mandawa also contested the parliamentary elections and won, leaving the seat vacant, necessitating the bypoll.