Cong’s Poll Panel releases list of 57 candidates
Gopal Sharma
JAMMU, Mar 21: The Congress Party released its third list of 57 candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections and discussed the names of candidates for Udhampur and Jammu seats.
Party sources told the Excelsior that for Udhampur-Doda Lok Sabha seat in J&K, the name of Ch Lal Singh was discussed and almost finalized while for Jammu-Reasi Parliamentary seat, the names of JKPCC working president, Raman Bhalla and former DyCM Tara Chand were discussed. However, no formal announcement was made till late tonight in this connection.
“In today’s list, the names of some of the candidates were cleared during yesterday’s meeting by CEC. From Udhampur and Jammu Lok Sabha seats the names of Ch Lal Singh and Raman Bhalla `have almost’ been cleared by the Central Committee. The formal list is likely to be released tomorrow,” the party sources added.
The party fielded Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury from Berhampore (WB), party chief Mallikarjun Kharge’s son-in-law Radhakrishna from Gulbarga and former Union Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde’s daughter- Praniti Shinde from Solapur.
In its third list, the Congress declared candidates for two seats in Arunachal Pradesh, 11 in Gujarat, 17 in Karnataka, seven in Maharashtra, five in Rajasthan, five in Telangana, eight in West Bengal and one in Puducherry.
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.
In Karnataka, it has fielded Priyanka Jarkiholi from Chikkodi, Radhakrishna from Gulbarga (SC), Vinod Asooti from Dharwad, M Rajeev Gowda from Bangalore North, Sowmya Reddy from Bangalore South and Mansoor Ali Khan from Bangalore Central, among others.
The party has again fielded 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.
Also, the Congress has fielded Isha Khan Choudhury, son of Abu Hasem Khan Choudhury, from Maldaha Dakshin. Abu Hasem Khan Choudhury is the incumbent MP from the seat.
The Congress has left the Sikar Lok Sabha constituency in Rajasthan for the Communist Party of India (Marxist). With this, the party has declared a total of 138 candidates for the elections.
The Congress had announced 82 candidates in two lists for the seven-phase Lok Sabha polls beginning April 19.
Earlier, the Congress’ Central Election Committee (CCEC) met here on Thursday to finalise Lok Sabha election candidates for Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
This is the first time that the panel, chaired by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, took up discussions on the candidates for the politically crucial Uttar Pradesh.
There is speculation that Rahul Gandhi may also contest from Amethi, besides his declared seat of Wayanad in Kerala, and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra from Raebareli, a seat which was previously held by Sonia Gandhi. Both the seats in UP are considered bastions of the Gandhi family and the local units of the Congress have demanded that the two scions of the Gandhi family should contest from there.
UP Congress chief Ajay Rai, Madhya Pradesh Congress chief Jitu Patwari and J&K unit chief Vikar Rasool Wani were present in the meetings held for their respective states. Also, the AICC state in-charges — Avinash Pande (UP), Jitendra Singh (MP) and Bharatsinh Solanki were also present when candidates for their respective states were discussed.
The meeting of the CEC was attended by former Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, party general secretary K C Venugopal and other members of the panel. However, Rahul Gandhi, who is also a member of the panel, was not present.
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