No Secret: Manish Tiwari's dig at Congress over Punjab campaign list

New Delhi, Feb 05: Senior Congress leader Manish Tewari on Saturday took an apparent dig at the Congress saying that he is not surprised to see his name missing from Congress star campaigners list.

The names of Congress leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad and Lok Sabha MP from the state Manish Tewari are not among the party's star campaigners for the February 20 assembly election in Punjab.

Sad state of affairs in Punjab Congress as they exclude a prominent senior congress leader , MP from Punjab & former minister Manish Tewari Ji from the list of star campaigners in poll bound Punjab! Such narrow minded steps will never help Congress to win elections !," tweeted Abhijit Mukherjee.

Responding to Mukherjee's tweet, Tewari wrote "I would have been surprised if it would have been the other way around . The reasons have been a Public Affair now for quite a while Abhijit Da.

The Congress released its list of 30 'star campaigners' for Punjab, which includes Sonia Gandhi, Manmohan Singh, and Rahul Gandhi.

Azad and Tewari are among the prominent members of the G-23 who had written to party leadership seeking an overhaul and have been questioning the leadership.

Azad was also recently conferred with Padma Bhushan by the government of India.

However, some other members of the G-23 such as Anand Sharma and Bhupinder Singh Hooda are among the star campaigners for Punjab.

The party has also included former Rajasthan deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot, who earlier rebelled against the Congress.

Tewari is also the lone Hindu MP from Punjab, even though another MP from Punjab Ravneet Singh Bittu has been included in the list.

The list also includes Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Harish Chaudhary, PCC chief Navjot Singh Sidhu, Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi, Ambika Soni, and former Speaker Meira Kumar.