Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, party leaders Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Bhupinder Hooda, Kumari Selja and Randeep Singh Surjewala are among the 40 star campaigners for the party for the October 5 Haryana Assembly polls. The names of Vinesh Phogat and Bajrang Punia, who were at the forefront of the wrestlers’ protest against then WFI chief and former BJP MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, and recently joined the Congress, also figure in the list of the party’s star campaigners. Among other prominent campaigners are Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, party’s Haryana affairs in-charge Deepak Babaria, State unit chief of the party Udai Bhan and Ajay Maken, Birender Singh, Anand Sharma and Sachin Pilot. Former chief ministers Ashok Gehlot, Bhupesh Baghel, Charanjit Singh Channi also figure in the list of star campaigners.
Other senior leaders in the list are Punjab Congress chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring, Partap Singh Bajwa, Pawan Khera, Deepender Singh Hooda, Rajiv Shukla, Supriya Shrinate, Srinivas B V and Subhash Batra.
Governor Bandaru Dattatreya on Thursday exercised his powers under Article 174(2)(b) of the Constitution to dissolve the Haryana Vidhan Sabha. This action followed a recommendation from the council of ministers, led by Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini, who advised the early dissolution of the assembly to prevent a potential constitutional crisis. The recommendation for dissolution was made to prevent the need to call the House into session before the end of the six-month period following the Assembly’s last meeting, which is a constitutional requirement.
