Mumbai sources stated that Congress' interim president sonia gandhi and former Prime Minister manmohan singh are among the 40 "star" campaigners of the party for the 21 October Assembly elections in Maharashtra, the first major political contest after the Lok Sabha outing held earlier this year. Meanwhile among other top leaders of the party who are expected to hit the hustings are former party president rahul gandhi and his sister priyanka gandhi Vadra, the party general secretary in Uttar Pradesh.
Furthermore listing Sonia Gandhi, who had kept herself aloof from campaigning during the Lok Sabha polls earlier this year, as a star campaigner underlines the importance the Congress, which has lost state after states, is assigning to the Maharashtra elections. Meanwhile once a stronghold of the Congress, Maharashtra has slipped out of its grip since the emergence of the BJP and in the 2019 general elections, the party won just one seat.
Moreover as per the seat-sharing arrangement, the Congress and the NCP were expected to contest 125 seats each. However, the Congress has ended up filing more nominations till 4 October, the last date of filing papers.
