NEW DELHI: The Indian National Congress announced 40 star campaigners on Thursday to lead the second phase of electioneering for the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly.
The voting in the Union Territory is scheduled to be held in three phases- September 18, 25 and October 1.
In a notification issued on Thursday, the Congress party has named INC president Mallikarjun Kharge, Congress Parliamentary Party Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Congress MP Rahul Gandhi, Congress General Secretaries Priyanka Gandhi, KC Venugopal, and Jairam Ramesh as star campaigners in the run-up to the second phase polling.
The list also included Congress MPs Ajay Maken, Kishori Lal Sharma, Manish Tewari, Pramod Tiwari, Charanjit Singh Channi, and Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu.
Other leaders who were named in the list included Ambika Soni, Bharatsinh Solanki, Tariq Hameed Karra, Ghulam Ahmad Mir, Sachin Pilot, Mukesh Agnihotri, Salman Khurshid, Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, Amrinder Singh Raja Warring, Syed Nasir Hussain, Vikar Rasool Wani, Rajani Patil, Rajiv Shukla, Imran Pratapgarhi, Raman Bhalla, Tarachand, Chaudhary Lal Singh, Imran Masood, Pawan Khera, Supriya Shrinate, Kanhaiya Kumar, Manoj Yadav, Divya Maderna, Shahnawaz Chaudhary, Neeraj Kundan, Rajesh Lilothia, Alka Lamba and Srinivas BV.
Jammu and Kashmir has 90 assembly constituencies, with 7 seats reserved for Scheduled Castes (SCs) and 9 for Scheduled Tribes (STs).
The upcoming assembly polls will be the first elections in Kashmir since the abrogation of Article 370. The counting of votes will be held on October 8.