Manmohan is Congress' star campaigner in Maharashtra

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who is known to keep a low profile, has been named as the star campaigner of the Congress party in Maharshtra ahead of Lok Sabha elections.

The list of 40 campaigners submitted by the party with the chief electoral office of Maharashtra also names bigwigs like party president Sonia Gandhi, vice-president Rahul Gandhi, cabinet ministers and noted Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, Digvijay Singh, Jyotiraditya Scindia will also hold rallies across the state. Local Maharashtra known Congress leaders like chief minister Prithviraj Chauhan, former chief minister Ashok Chavan and party's in-charge for Lok Sabha elections Mohan Prakash also figured prominently in the list.

Besides Congress, other political parties like Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Shiv Sena, Maharshtra Navnirman Sena and Communist Party of India (Marxist) have also submitted their elaborate list of campaigners BJP, however, is yet to submit its list to the EC.

The NCP has submitted a list of 37 star campaigners with party president Sharad Pawar's name being on the top. Other prominent NCP leaders who would campaign in the state include former civil aviation minister Praful Patel, minister of state for agriculture and NCP general secretary Tariq Anwar and party's chief spokesperson Devi Prasad Tripathi.

The Shiv Sena has a comparable list with 36 names out of which two names that figure in bold on the top are that of party's executive president Uddhav Thackeray and his son Aditya Thackeray, who heads party's youth wing. Others who follow include former Maharashtra chief minister Manohar Joshi, senior Sena leaders like Liladhar Dake, Subhash Desai and Sanjay Raut.

For MNS, the list of 28 candidates include party president Raj Thackeray, party general secretary Nitin Sardesai, and leaders like Shishir Shinde. The left party has also submitted a list of 24 star campaigners which include former West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, party general secretary Prakash Karat and senior leaders like Nilotpal Thankur and Sitaram Yechury.