State Cong’s top guns to campaign in Goa

NT Correspondent

Nine leaders from the state Congress including Rajya Sabha leader Mallikarjin Kharge, former CM Siddaramaiah and KPCC President D.K.Shivakumar have been selected as star campaigners for elections to the Goa Assembly.

According to the list of campaigners submitted to the Election Commission of India, other campaigners from Karnataka are; Dinesh Gundu Rao, H.K. Patil, M.B. Patil, Satish Jarkiholi, R.V. Deshpande and B.V. Srinivas.

The purpose of having H.K. Patil and M.B. Patil is to woo Kannadigas settled in Goa. Most of them are from North Karnataka.

Satish Jarkiholi belongs to Belagavi which supplies everything from milk and vegetables to fruits to Goa. So he is expected to wield a lot of influence on Kannadigas in Goa. Deshpande is a Congress leader who has business connections in Goa. Being a senior leader of Uttara Kannada, he can play a role in attracting Kannadigas.

Srinivas is from the Youth Congress and can attract youth voters while Kharge, Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar are required by AICC President Sonia Gandhi and her son, Rahul Gandhi to woo voters