Congress Struggles for Visibility in Vidarbha as Star Campaigners Stay Off the Ground

Nagpur: As campaigning intensifies for civic polls, Congress is finding itself grappling with a visible absence of star campaigners on the ground in Vidarbha, a region critical to its revival hopes. Despite announcing an expansive list of senior leaders and national figures as campaigners, the party's presence in key cities remains muted, prompting concern among political observers.State Congress president Harshwardhan Sapkal visited Nagpur on Tuesday to release the party's manifesto for the Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) polls but refrained from addressing any public rally. His engagements were limited to meetings with party candidates at Mahakalkar Sabhagruh. The following day, Sapkal held internal meetings and addressed the media in Amravati, again without a mass outreach programme.Several prominent leaders named as star campaigners, including Maharashtra in-charge Ramesh Chennithala, legislative party leader in the Assembly Vijay Wadettiwar, general secretary Mukul Wasnik, former Rajasthan chief minister Sachin Pilot, and former CM Prithviraj Chavan, have not been seen campaigning in Vidarbha so far. Senior regional leaders also maintained a low profile. Former MPCC Presidents Nana Patole and Manikrao Thakre were largely absent from the campaign trail, while Wadettiwar's efforts were confined mainly to Chandrapur district. Even experienced leaders such as former ministers Nitin Raut and Sunil Kedar had limited visibility.The list also included leaders from outside the state, such as Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy and veteran actor Raj Babbar, along with former India captain Mohammed Azharuddin, Amin Patel, Jignesh Mevani, and Kanhaiya Kumar, as per the observers.Defending the party's approach, Sapkal told TOI that national leaders like national President Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra would not campaign in local body elections. "These national leaders are not supposed to address rallies for local elections," he said, adding that the BJP was bringing Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Mumbai "to please the Jain community, which is upset with the party." Sapkal said MP Imran Pratapgadhi would campaign in Nagpur, Chandrapur and Amravati on January 10 and 11.Sapkal outlined a decentralised campaign plan, assigning senior leaders to oversee specific regions. "Leaders like former minister Sunil Deshmukh and ex-MLC Yashomati Thakur are taking care of Amravati. Others like Satej Patil are handling Pune, Sangli and Kolhapur, while Amit Deshmukh is overseeing Latur, Nanded and Parbhani. Arif Nasim Khan is taking care of Konkan," he said, adding that he himself would campaign in Parbhani, Jalna, Ahilyanagar, Latur, Bhiwandi and other cities in the coming days.The observers, however, remain sceptical. They also point to the Congress's failure to forge alliances with the Sharad Pawar-led NCP and the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena as a significant handicap. "Without visible national leadership and alliances, the Congress looks disadvantaged against a highly mobilised BJP," an observer said. "The party did not learn its lessons. Even in local body polls last month, Fadnavis and other top BJP leaders addressed rallies extensively. The CM himself said he went to 1 village to address 10,000 people," an observer said.