Sidhu, Priyanka Gandhi to campaign for Pawan Kajal

Lalit Mohan

Tribune News Service

Dharamsala, April 25

The Congress will rope in its star campaigners Navjot Sidhu and Priyanka Gandhi to campaign for Pawan Kajal.

Former minister and AICC secretary Sudhir Sharma, while talking to The Tribune, said Pawan Kajal would file his nomination papers on April 29. After that, Navjot Sidhu would campaign for him in Nurpur. Sidhu is likely to campaign in the first week of May, he said.

Sudhir said, “We have requested the party high command for a rally of Priyanka Gandhi in Chamba district any day from May 12 to 14.”

However, Pawan Kajal is campaigning on his own. The Congress has not organised any big rally. He is visiting various areas with a small group of supporters. The social media and publicity campaign of Pawan Kajal is also negligible.

Some leaders said if an Assembly constituency-level rally was to be organised, it required about Rs 2 lakh. As per earlier practice, either the party or candidate used to bear the expenditure. At present, no one was ready to pay. Some leaders could bear the expenditure, but most of them would be waiting for the funds.

Pawan Kajal, when asked if he was facing fund crunch or had been left in a lurch by senior leaders, said he did not want to comment on it. “I am doing my best and will try to reach out to people of the constituency right from Kangra to Chamba districts,” he said.

However, Pawan Kajal faces the challenge of interacting with voters in Kangra and Chamba as he was not a known face. He requires a massive publicity campaign but the party and its leaders are not supporting him, said a Congress leader.

To file papers on April 29

Pawan Kajal will file his nomination papers on April 29. After that, Navjot Sidhu will campaign for him in Nurpur. Sidhu is likely to campaign in the first week of May.

Kajal promises another CUHP campus at Chattri

• Kangra: Congress candidate from Kangra Pawan Kajal Thursday assured the residents of Draman in the Shahpur segment that if he was voted to power, the Central University of Himachal Pradesh (CUHP) would have its third campus at Chattri Shahpur. 
• Kajal was addressing a public meeting as part of his campaigning. Earlier in the day, he addressed 13 public meetings in the Shahpur constituency.
• He alleged that for the past one decade, the future of the university had been hanging in balance. OC