Cong readies for star war, Shotgun, Urmila on list

Ramkrishan Upadhyay

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 24

Urmila Matondkar and Shatrughan Sinha are among the film celebrities on the list of star campaigners submitted by the city Congress to the party high command with a request to arrange their meetings in the city in support of party candidate Pawan Kumar Bansal.

The Congress central campaign committee had sought lists from all state Congress chiefs to fix meetings as per the availability and schedule of the star campaigners. Sources said the Congress had included the names of the film personalities in the list to counter Kirron Kher’s friends from the film industry.

In the last Lok Sabha elections, Anil Kapoor held a roadshow in favour of Kher.

Besides the film personalities, the local Congress has also expressed its desire to hold big rallies of Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi. Other leaders whose names have been included in the list are the Punjab Chief Minister, Capt Amarinder Singh, former Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh Virbhdra Singh and former Chief Minister of Haryana Bhupinder Singh Hooda.

To attract the migrant population, it has also invited young RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav from Bihar and Raj Babbar from UP.

Other start campaigners include Punjab Cabinet Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu, Kumari Selja and Ambika Soni. Pramod Tiwari, a prominent leader from UP, has also been invited.

Two other leaders Sachin Pilot and Jyotiraditya Scindia have also been invited to address rallies in favour of Bansal. The sources said the Congress was keen on inviting Shatrughan Sinha as he was a friend of AAP candidate Harmohan Dhawan. Sinha had already supported Dhawan at a rally before joining the Congress.