The Congress on Wednesday brought out a fresh list of 14 candidates from Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Telangana and Madhya Pradesh for the Lok Sabha elections.
Some of these were cleared by the Central Election Committee (CEC) of the party earlier in the evening. Sources said the CEC had discussed around 18 names and most had been cleared.
In Uttar Pradesh, the party named Dolly Sharma from Ghaziabad, Virendra Chowdhury from Maharajganj, Nakul Dubey from Sitapur and Shivram Valmiki from Bulandshahr.
Though not yet announced, the party’s choice for Prayagraj could be significant in terms of the Congress-Samajwadi Party (SP) alliance in Uttar Pradesh.
The party is said to have cleared Ujjwal Raman Singh, a former minister in Akhilesh Yadav government and son of Samajwadi Party leader Rewati Raman Singh, for the Prayagraj Lok Sabha seat.
Mr. Ujjwal too is a Samajwadi leader but the Prayagraj seat has gone to the Congress in the alliance. Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav is said to have recommended his name to placate Rewati Raman, who has been a seven-term MLA and three-time MP from Allahabad, now known as Prayagraj.
In Madhya Pradesh, the party had fielded Rao Yadvendra Singh against Jyotiraditya Scindia in Guna. Other candidates from the State include Tarvar Singh Lodhi from Damoh and Pratap Bhanu Sharma from Vidisha.
In Jharkhand, the party will field J.P. Patel from Hazaribagh, Sukhdeo Bhagat from Lohardagga and Kalicharan Munda from Khunti. But the name for the Ranchi seat has been put on hold.
In Telangana, four names have been announced, including MLC T. Jeevan Reddy from Nizamabad, Athram Suguna from Adilabad, Neelam Madhu from Medak and Chamala Kiran Kumar Reddy from Bhongir.
With these names, the party has so far announced 203 names.
