LS polls: Congress releases list of 14 names; no ticket for Supriya Shrinate

The Congress on Wednesday (March 27) released its eighth list of 14 candidates for the Lok Sabha elections, fielding Rao Yadvendra Singh against Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia in Madhya Pradesh's Guna.

The party has fielded Pratap Bhanu Sharma against former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan in Vidisha. Tarvar Singh Lodhi has been nominated from Damoh.

The Congress announced candidates for four seats each in Uttar Pradesh and Telangana, and three each in Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand. With this, the total number of candidates declared by the party so far has reached 208.

The announcement of the 14 candidates came hours after top Congress leaders met to discuss the party's Lok Sabha poll candidates in Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, Goa and Jharkhand.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, former party chief Sonia Gandhi, party general secretary K C Venugopal and the members of its Central Election Committee (CEC), including senior leaders Ambika Soni, Madhusudan Mistry, Uttam Kumar Reddy and Salman Khurshid, were present at the meeting.

The party will contest 17 of the state’s 80 Lok Sabha seats as an alliance partner of the Samajwadi Party (SP).

Uttar Pradesh

In Uttar Pradesh, the Congress nominated Dolly Sharma from Ghaziabad, Nakul Dubey from Sitapur, Shivram Valmiki from Bulandshahr (SC) seat and Virendra Chaudhary from Maharajganj.

Dubey, who had been a minister in Mayawati’s 2007-2012 government, had crossed over to the Congress in 2022.

The Congress' social media department head, Supriya Shrinate, who is at the centre of a controversy over a now-deleted social media post on BJP's Mandi candidate Kangana Ranaut, had unsuccessfully contested the Maharajganj seat last time. Even though it was expected that she could be fielded again from Maharajganj, the ticket has gone to Chaudhary.

Congress insiders said the party is in talks with Ujjwal Raman Singh, son of veteran SP leader and former Allahabad MP Rewati Raman Singh, to contest the Allahabad seat as its candidate. Ujjwal is presently a member of the SP and Rewati Raman has been critical of SP’s decision to leave the Allahabad seat for the Congress as part of the alliance. The last Congress candidate who had won the Allahabad Lok Sabha seat for the party was actor Amitabh Bachchan in 1984.

Jharkhand

In Jharkhand, the Congress named Kalicharan Munda from the Khunti (ST) seat, Sukhdeo Bhagat from Lohardaga (ST) and Jai Prakashbhai Patel from the Hazaribagh constituency. Patel, who had recently quit the BJP to join Congress, has been pitted against BJP’s Manish Jaiswal who had replaced former Union minister Jayant Sinha. The Congress had initially tried to get former BJP veteran and Jayant’s father Yashwant Sinha to contest from the seat, but he turned down the offer due to poor health.

Telangana

In Telangana, the party has fielded Athram Suguna from Adilabad, Tatiparthi Jeevan Reddy from Nizamabad, Neelam Madhu from Medak and Chamala Kiran Kumar Reddy from Bhongir.

Suspense over Amethi, Rae Bareli continues

Suspense over the high-profile seats of Amethi and Rae Bareli continued.

Asked about these two seats of Uttar Pradesh, state Congress chief Ajai Rai said there was no discussion on these parliamentary constituencies. "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.

After the CEC meeting last week, Rai said, "We have given our proposal that members of the Gandhi family should contest from Amethi and Raebareli as it is the demand of the people there. Now, it is up to the party leadership to decide on it."

There is speculation that besides his declared seat of Wayanad in Kerala, Rahul Gandhi may also contest the Lok Sabha polls from Amethi, a seat he represented earlier, and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra from Rae Bareli, a seat that was previously held by her mother Sonia Gandhi.

Both seats are considered bastions of the Gandhi family and the local units of the Congress have demanded that the two scions of the family should contest from there.

The Lok Sabha polls are scheduled to be held in seven phases starting April 19. Wednesday was the last day for filing nominations for the first phase of the elections. The counting of votes will be taken up on June 4.

(With inputs from agencies)