NEW DELHI: The Congress on Wednesday announced candidatures for 14 Lok Sabha seats, including four constituencies in Uttar Pradesh.
The party has fielded Dolly Sharma from Ghaziabad and Shivam Valmiki from Bulandshahr. Nakul Dubey is the party's nominee from Sitapur, and Virendra Chaudhary will contest from Maharajganj.
Chaudhary is an MLA from the Pharenda assembly segment under Maharajganj. Dubey, a lawyer by profession, was a minister in Mayawati’s cabinet.
Sharma unsuccessfully contested the 2019 election from the same seat.
In Jharkhand, Kalcharan Munda has been pitted against union minister Arjun Munda in Khunti (reserved). Sukhdeo Bhagat and Jai Prakashbhai Patel are Congress’ candidates from Lohardaga (reserved) and Hazaribagh.
The list released late evening also comprises names of candidates for three parliamentary constituencies in Madhya Pradesh—Guna, Damoh, and Vidisha. Rao Yadvendra Singh is from Guna, and Tarvar Singh Lodhi has been given a ticket from Damoh. Pratap Bhanu Sharma has been nominated from Vidisha.
In Telangana, Athram Suguna is the Congress candidate from Adilabad (reserved).
The candidatures for four seats in the state were announced, including Tatiparthi Jeevan Reddy (Nizamabad), Neelam Madhu (Medak), and Chamala Kiran Kumar Reddy (Bhongir).
It is learned that the top leadership of the Congress finalized the candidature for 18 Lok Sabha seats on Wednesday, including six constituencies in Uttar Pradesh.
The names were approved in the Central Election Committee meeting held at the party’s headquarters to deliberate over candidates in Telangana, Goa, Jharkhand, and UP. However, no discussion took place on two crucial seats—Amethi and Raebareli.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, former party chief Sonia Gandhi, party general secretary KC Venugopal, and the members of its CEC, including senior leaders Ambika Soni, Madhusudan Mistry, Uttam Kumar Reddy, and Salman Khurshid, were present at the meeting.
The Congress has already announced candidates for nine seats in the state. Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Ajai Rai said there was no discussion on Amethi and Raebareli.
“We had conveyed our views on these seats (Amethi and Rae Bareli) the last time. It is up to the leadership now to take a decision,” he said. It is being speculated that besides Wayanad in Kerala, Rahul Gandhi may also contest from Amethi, a seat he represented earlier.
Priyanka Gandhi Vadra may be fielded from Rae Bareli, a seat that was previously held by her mother and former Congress chief Sonia Gandhi. Both seats are considered strongholds of the Gandhi family, and the local units of the Congress have demanded that the two scions of the family should contest.
According to party insiders, names for Prayagraj and Mathura were also cleared. The Congress is in an alliance with the Samajwadi Party (SP) in Uttar Pradesh and is contesting 17 Lok Sabha seats in the state. The CEC first discussed candidatures for seats in Goa and thereafter Jharkhand and Telangana. And UP seats were taken up last.
After the meeting, Jharkhand Congress President Rajesh Thakur said that the Congress would contest on 14 seats in the state. “The leadership will take a decision soon (on the candidates' list), and you will be informed about it. We have fixed the number of seats we will contest, which is 14. The INDIA bloc will fight on 14 seats and will fight with full force.”
Congress in-charge for Jharkhand, Ghulam Ahmad Mir, added, “We had detailed discussions on many seats of Jharkhand... Our appeal to our workers, leaders, and the people who support us is that if you also want to overthrow this government, then come, support, and vote for us.”
There was a buzz in the party corridor that it might announce the names for four seats in Jharkhand, including Ranchi, Lohardaga, Khunti, and Hazaribagh, after the CEC meeting. The panel will meet again on March 31st.
Earlier in the day, Venugopal addressed a preparatory meeting of Delhi and Haryana leaders for the grand rally being organized to protest against the arrest of chief ministers of Delhi and Jharkhand, Arvind Kejriwal and Hemant Soren, by the Enforcement Directorate and the freezing of the party’s bank accounts. The rally is scheduled for March 31st at Ramlila Maidan. The meeting was attended by the general Secretaries Incharge of Haryana and Delhi, Deepak Babaria, and the leadership of both states.
