Jagadish Shettar, Sonia Gandhi, Tharoor in Cong’s list of star campaigners for Karnataka polls

PTI, Apr 19, 2023, 5:11 PM IST

Former Karnataka Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar, who joined the Congress this week after quitting the BJP, figures in the Congress’ list of star campaigners for the Karnataka Assembly polls that also includes party chief Mallikarjun Kharge, Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Shashi Tharoor.

The Congress on Wednesday released a list of 40 leaders who would be the party’s star campaigners for the May 10 assembly elections.

Interestingly, Shettar, who crossed over to the Congress a couple of days ago and has been given the party ticket from the Hubli-Dharwad-Central Assembly segment that he currently represents, has been included in the list.

A staunch RSS man, Shettar was part of the Jan Sangh and BJP for several decades before severing his ties with the party upon his candidature being overlooked for the May 10 election and joined Congress on Monday.

The Congress’ list of star campaigners has many stalwarts from Karnataka such as former chief minister Siddaramaiah, Karnataka Congress chief D K Shivakumar, Jairam Ramesh, M Veerappa Moily, M B Patil, G Parameshwara, K H Muniyappa and BK Hariprasad.

Others include Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, his Chhattisgarh counterpart Bhupesh Baghel, Himachal Pradesh CM Sukhwinder Singh Sukku, AICC in-charge of Karnataka Randeep Surjewala, senior party leaders Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, K C Venugopal, P Chidambaram, Prithviraj Chavan and Ashok Chavan.

Sachin Pilot, who was on the list of star campaigners for the 2018 Karnataka polls, does not figure on the list this time.

Ramalinga Reddy, Satish Jarkiholi, D K Suresh, G C Chandrashekhar, Syed Naseer Hussain, Zameer Ahmed Khan, H M Revanna, Umashree, Revanth Reddy, Ramesh Chennithala, Srinivas B V, Raj Babbar, Mohammed Azharuddin, Divya Spandana, Imran Pratapgarhi, Kanhaiya Kumar, Rupa Shashidhar and Sadhukokila are also on the list.

The assembly polls will be held on May 10 and the results will be announced on May 13. The Congress is seeking to oust the BJP from power in the southern state.