The Congress party released their fourth list of candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, which has Uttar Pradesh unit chief Ajay Rai being nominated again to take on Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Varanasi. This is Rai's third time against the Prime Minister from the constituency.
The fourth list of 45 candidates also has Digvijaya Singh contesting from Madhya Pradesh's Rajgarh, his home turf. He won the elections from the same constituency in 1991 but in 2019, Singh was fielded from Bhopal against BJP's Pragya Thakur, which he lost.
While MLA Vikas Thakare will take on Union Minister Nitin Gadkari in Maharashtra's Nagpur, former finance minister's son and MP Karti Chidambaram has been fielded from Tamil Nadu's Sivaganga.
Former Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) minister Lal Singh who rejoined the Congress after leaving the party for BJP in 2014, will take on Union minister Jitendra Singh from the state's Udhampur constituency. Former BSP leader Danish Ali, who joined Congress recently after being ousted from Mayawati's party, has been nominated from Amroha by the Congress. Ali held the same seat last time but as a BSP candidate.
Imran Masood is the Congress candidate from the Saharanpur seat while Alok Mishra has been fielded from Kanpur.
Among other significant nominations by the party, it has fielded Kawasi Lakhma from Bastar (ST), Raman Bhalla from Jammu, Angomcha Bimol Akoijam from Inner Manipur, Alfred Kanngam S Arthur from Outer Manipur (ST), Anil Chopra from Jaipur Rural, Bhajanlal Jatav from Karauli Dholpur, former Uttarakhand chief minister Harish Rawat's son Virender Rawat from Haridwar and Piya Roy Chowdhury from Coochbehar (SC).
Congress releases the fourth list of 46 candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
— ANI (@ANI) March 23, 2024
Congress leader Digvijay Singh to contest from Rajgarh Lok Sabha Constituency, UP Congress President Ajay Rai from Varanasi, Imran Masood from Saharanpur, Virender Rawat from Haridwar and… pic.twitter.com/wpnr6kvoUr
No word on Amethi, Raebareli
The party announced candidates for 12 seats of Madhya Pradesh, nine of Uttar Pradesh, seven of Tamil Nadu, four of Maharashtra, two each of Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, Manipur and Jammu and Kashmir, and one each of West Bengal, Assam, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Mizoram and Chhattisgarh.
However, it mentioned nothing about Amethi and Raebareli, amid the suspense over whether Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will contest the polls from Amethi and Raebareli, respectively, continued.
There is speculation that Rahul Gandhi may also contest the polls from Amethi, besides his declared seat of Wayanad in Kerala, and Priyanka Gandhi from Raebareli, previously held by her mother, Sonia Gandhi.
Both are considered bastions of the Gandhi family, and the local units of the Congress have demanded that the two scions of the family contest the polls from there.
With this, the Congress has declared a total of 183 candidates for the seven-phase Lok Sabha polls starting April 19.
