Manish Tewari says exclusion from Congress's Punjab star-campaigner list was expected

New Delhi: Just a day after the Congress released its list of star campaigners for the Punjab Assembly Polls, veteran leader Manish Tewari, whose name was omitted from the list said it was expected and he would have been surprised if it was the other way around.

He also said the reasons for his name not being on the list were not a state secret and had been a public affair for a while now.

"I would have been pleasantly surprised if it would have been the other way around. The reasons are also no state secret," Tewari wrote on Twitter, tagging a news report about the Congress' decision to drop him and Azad from its star campaigners' list.

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_LS Da. https://t.co/PVCXCweR83

— Manish Tewari (@ManishTewari) February 5, 2022

The statements come after Congress released the list of its 30-star campaigners for the Punjab Assembly polls to be held on February 20. The party left out the names of Tewari and Ghulam Nabi Azad, two of the prominent G-23 leaders, who had written to the party leadership seeking an organisational overhaul.

However, some other members of the 'G-23' such as Anand Sharma and Bhupinder Singh Hooda were included in the list.

Earlier, the Congress MP from Anandpur Sahib tweeted photos of himself campaigning in Punjab's Kharar and other areas in his constituency in support of Congress candidates.

Abhijit Mukherjee, Trinamool Congress leader and son of ex-president Pranab Mukherjee, came out in Tewari's support and said such narrow-minded steps will never help the Congress win elections.

Sad state of affairs in @INCPunjab as they exclude a prominent senior congress leader , MP from Punjab & former minister @ManishTewari Ji from the list of star campaigners in poll bound Punjab!

Such narrow minded steps will never help Congress to win elections !

— Abhijit Mukherjee (@ABHIJIT_LS) February 4, 2022

"Sad state of affairs in @INCPunjab as they exclude a prominent senior congress leader, MP from Punjab & former minister @ManishTewari Ji from the list of star campaigners in poll-bound Punjab," Mukherjee tweeted.

He said, "Such narrow-minded steps will never help Congress to win elections!"

Replying to Mukherjee, a former Congress MP, Tewari said, "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_LS Da."

Mukherjee wrote back, saying, "Brother @ManishTewari Ji, our people with their votes are the only answer to such bipartisan mentality!"

"Come what may, you shall always remain indomitable! You have always been one of the finest parliamentarians I have seen & that has been my late father's opinion too," he said.

Besides Sharma and Hooda, Congress' list of star campaigners for the Punjab Assembly elections includes party president Sonia Gandhi, former prime minister Manmohan Singh and senior leader Rahul Gandhi.

The list also includes Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi and party state unit chief Navjot Singh Sidhu.