Sonia, Rahul star Bihar campaigners
Congress president Sonia Gandhi and AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi will be the star campaigners of the party in the six-phased Bihar Assembly polls in the next two months.
While Mrs Gandhi and her son Rahul are expected to address two meetings in the first phase next month, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh too address a few meetings, party insiders said.
The Congress, which is going it alone in the electoral battle, will not only take on the Janata Dal (U)-BJP combine but the supporting parties like the Lalu Prasad Yadav-led RJD and the Lok Janshakti Party. Besides, it will have to attack on the ally NCP with whom it has been sharing power at the Centre and in Maharshtra during the election campaigning.
The Congress leaders are keeping a venue from where Mrs Gandhi will launch the party’s election campaign a top secret. Senior party leaders, meanwhile, switch off their cell phones on Monday nights to avoid ticket seekers. The second line in the party, especially non-Hindi speakers, are not in demand for the campaigning. Union ministers Pranab Mukherjee, A.K. Antony, P. Chidambaram, S.M. Krishna, Veerappa Moily, Vayalar Ravi, S. Jaipal Reddy are unlikely to be involved in the campaigning but Sushilkumar Shinde, Kapil Sibal, Salman Khurshid, Subodh Kant Sahay, Kumari Selja, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Jitin Prasada, Sachin Pilot could be used.
Union minister and AICC general secretary Mukul Wasnik is handling the party campaigning, chalking out the strategy and monitoring the electoral battle.
It is not known whether the party will be involving its chief ministers in the campaigning. The party is also tightlipped on who will be its main campaigners in the Naxal-hit districts.
Though chief minister Nitish Kumar and the BJP will be the main target of the Congress in the election, it will find it difficult to attack the RJD after sharing power with it in the state.
According to the reports from Patna, the state government on Monday notified transfer of six IAS officials, including five district magistrates and 10 senior IPS officials.
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