NEW DELHI : The Congress on Wednesday announced candidates for 14 Lok Sabha seats including four seats in Uttar Pradesh.
The party has fielded Dolly Sharma from Ghaziabad and Shivam Valmiki from Bulandshahr. Nakul Dubey is party’s nominee from Sitapur and Virendra Chaudhary will contest from Maharajganj.
Chaudhary is MLA from 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 is 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 seats in Madhya Pradesh — Guna, Damoh and Vidisha. Rao Yadvendra Singh is fielded from Guna and Tarvar Singh Lodhi from Damoh. Pratap Bhanu Sharma has been nominated from Vidisha.
In Telangana, Athram Suguna is 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 learnt that the top leadership of the Congress had finalised candidature for 18 Lok Sabha seats on Wednesday, including six constituencies of Uttar Pradesh.
The names were approved in the Central Election Committee meeting that was held in 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.
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 the 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 in the 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 candidates list) and you will be informed about it. We have fixed the number that we will fight on 14 seats. 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.”
The CEC panel will meet again on March 31.