LS polls: Congress releases 3rd list of 56 candidates

The Congress on Thursday night (March 21) released its third list of candidates for the 56 Lok Sabha seats in Arunachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Telangana, West Bengal and Puducherry.

Sharing the list on its official X (Twitter) handle, the Congress party wrote, "The third list of names of Congress candidates on 57 Lok Sabha seats for the Lok Sabha elections, 2024 was released in the meeting of the 'Central Election Committee' held under the chairmanship of Congress President Shri @kharge."

The list features candidates for 17 seats in Karnataka, 11 in Gujarat, eight in West Bengal, seven in Maharashtra, five each in Rajasthan and Telangana, two in Arunachal Pradesh, and one in Puducherry. The Congress has left the Sikar Lok Sabha constituency in Rajasthan for the Communist Party of India (Marxist).

Adhir Ranjan to contest again from Berhampore

The party has again fielded Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury from Berhampore, setting up the much-anticipated clash between the veteran Congress leader and cricketer-turned-politician Yusuf Pathan, who has been fielded by the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) in West Bengal.

Former Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Nabam Tuki has been fielded from Arunachal West. In Gujarat, the party has named Sonal Patel from Gandhinagar, Prabhaben Taviyad from Dahod (ST) and Nilesh Kumbani from Surat, among others.

Karnataka list

Kharge's son-in-law and the children of five ministers figure in the list of 17 candidates in Karnataka.

Satish Jarkiholi's daughter Priyanka Jarkiholi (Chikkodi), Ramalinga Reddy's daughter Sowmya Reddy (Bangalore South), Shivanand Patil's daughter Samyukta S Patil (Bagalkot), Laxmi Hebbalkar's son Mrinal Ravindra Hebbalkar (Belgaum) and Eshwar Khandre's son Sagar Khandre (Bidar) will be contesting in the polls.

Mansoor Ali Khan, son of former Deputy Chairman of Rajya Sabha K Rahman Khan and Prabha Mallikarjun, wife of Minister S S Mallikarjun and daughter-in-law of veteran party leader Shamanur Shivashankarappa, are the party's nominees from Bangalore Central and Davangere, respectively.

In Gulbarga (Kalaburagi), Kharge's son-in-law Radhakrishna Doddamani will be in the fray. Kharge had won the seat in the 2009 and 2014 Lok Sabha elections but lost in 2019.

Prof M V Rajeev Gowda, the Vice-Chairman of Karnataka State Policy and Planning Commission, will contest against BJP's Union Minister Shobha Karandlaje in Bangalore North.

State transport minister Ramalinga Reddy's daughter Sowmya will take on BJP's incumbent MP Tejasvi Surya in Bangalore South.

The other candidates who figure in the second list are M Laxman (Mysore), Vinod Asooti (Dharwad), G Kumar Naik (Raichur), Padmaraj (Dakshina Kannada), Jayaprakash Hegde (Udupi-Chikmagalur), K Rajashekar Basavaraj Hitnal (Koppal), Anjali Nimbalkar (Uttara Kannada), and B N Chandrappa (Chitradurga).

Maharashtra candidates

Three sitting MLAs are in the list of seven candidates in Maharashtra.

Three-time Solapur City Central MLA Praniti Shinde (43), daughter of former Union minister Sushilkumar Shinde, will contest from Solapur, while Kasbapeth legislator Ravindra Dhangekar will fight the polls from Pune, the party said.

Balwant Wankhede, an MLA from Daryapur, has been fielded from Amravati seat, which is reserved for the Scheduled Castes.

Shahu Chhatrapati, scion of the Kolhapur royal family, is the party's candidate from Kolhapur, while Shivajirao Kalge will contest from Latur (SC) seat.

As per the party's announcement, former MLA Vasantrao Chavan has been fielded from Nanded and Gowaal K Padavi, who is son of Congress leader KC Padavi, will contest from Nandurbar (Scheduled Tribe) seat.

Puducherry MP renominated

Sitting MP V Vaithilingam has been renominated from the Puducherry Lok Sabha constituency.

Vaithilingam (74) was PWD Minister in Puducherry in 1985 and was Leader of Opposition in the territorial Assembly between 1990 and 1991. He was Chief Minister of Puducherry between 1991-1996 and from 2008 to 2011. He became Speaker of the Assembly in 2016 and quit the MLA post to successfully contest the Lok Sabha poll in 2019.