The Congress party on Wednesday announced its eighth list of candidates, comprising 14 names, notably pitting Rao Yadvendra Singh against Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia in Madhya Pradesh’s Guna constituency.
In addition, Pratap Bhanu Sharma has been fielded against former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan in Vidisha, while Tarvar Singh Lodhi has been nominated from Damoh. Moving to Uttar Pradesh, the Congress has nominated Dolly Sharma for Ghaziabad, Nakul Dubey for Sitapur, Shivram Valmiki for the Bulandshahr (SC) seat, and Virendra Chaudhary for Maharajganj.
Supriya Shrinate, head of the Congress’ social media department, who faced controversy over a now-deleted objectionable post concerning BJP’s Mandi candidate Kangana Ranaut, previously contested the Maharajganj seat without success. However, she has been dropped from the list fielded from Maharajganj, and the ticket has been given to Chaudhary.
The party has now declared candidates for four seats each in Uttar Pradesh and Telangana, and three each in Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand, bringing the total number of announced candidates to 208.
In Jharkhand, Kalicharan Munda has been named for the Khunti (ST) seat, Sukhdeo Bhagat for Lohardaga (ST), and Jai Prakashbhai Patel for the Hazaribagh constituency.
Meanwhile, in Telangana, the party has chosen Athram Suguna for Adilabad, Tatiparthi Jeevan Reddy for Nizamabad, Neelam Madhu for Medak, and Chamala Kiran Kumar Reddy for Bhongir.
The suspense continues over the high-profile seats of Amethi and Raebareli in Uttar Pradesh. Speculation is rife 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, while Priyanka Gandhi Vadra could contest from Raebareli, a seat previously held by her mother, Sonia Gandhi. Both seats are considered strongholds of the Gandhi family, and local units of the Congress have voiced their desire for the scions of the family to contest from there.
With the Lok Sabha polls scheduled to be held in seven phases starting April 19, Wednesday marked the last day for filing nominations for the first phase of the elections. Vote counting is set to commence on June 4.