In a major development, Shashi Tharoor has opted out of the Gujarat Assembly election campaign as per a NDTV report. The Congress on Tuesday released a list of its star campaigners for the next month’s Gujarat Assembly elections, naming newly-elected party chief Malliakrjun Kharge, party leader Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi among others. However, several senior leaders of the party including Anand Sharma, Shashi Tharoor, Manish Tewari and Randeep Singh Surjewala did not feature in the list.
Sharma, Tharoor and Tewari were part of the G-23 grouping that wrote a letter to Sonia Gandhi in 2020 seeking an organisational overhaul and a full-time president. Tharoor had also unsuccessfully contested the recently-held party’s presidential polls against Kharge.The other leaders who have been given the task of campaigning for the party for the first phase of two-phase elections include party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and his bete noire Sachin Pilot and Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel.