Congress releases 4th list for LS polls; fields Ajay Rai against PM Modi

The Congress on Saturday released its fourth list of 45 candidates for the Lok Sabha election, fielding its Uttar Pradesh unit chief Ajay Rai from Varanasi to take on Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The party has left the Nagaur parliamentary constituency in Rajasthan for the Hanuman Beniwal-led Rashtriya Loktantrik Party.

The Congress fielded its veteran leader Digvijaya Singh from Madhya Pradesh's Rajgarh and newly-inducted leader Lal Singh from Jammu and Kashmir's Udhampur.
 

In Tamil Nadu, the party has fielded Karti Chidambaram from Sivaganga, Manickam Tagore from Virudhnagar and S Jothimani from Karur.

For Uttar Pradesh, where the party is in alliance with the Samajwadi Party and is contesting on 17 seats, the Congress announced candidates for nine seats. These include Rai from Varanasi, Danish Ali from Amroha, Imran Masood from Saharanpur and Alok Mishra from Kanpur.

The Congress on Saturday night declared four candidates for Lok Sabha elections from Maharashtra, fielding MLA Vikas Thakre against Union minister and BJP stalwart Nitin Gadkari from Nagpur.

With this, the Congress, a constituent of MVA, has so far declared 11 candidates from Maharashtra, which sends 48 members to Lok Sabha.
 

The fresh list includes four constituencies - Nagpur, Ramtek (SC), Bhandara-Gondiya, and Gadchiroli-Chimur - out of the five that will go to polls in the first phase on April 19.
 

Congress has fielded Nagpur West MLA Vikas Thakare from this LS seat against Nitin Gadkari. Other candidates are Rashmi Barve from Ramtek (reserved for Scheduled Caste candidates), Prashant Padole from Bhandara-Gondiya, and Namdeo Kirsan from Gadchiroli-Chimur.
 

Barve is Nagpur Zilla Parishad's president. Notably, senior Congress leader Nitin Raut wanted the Ramtek seat for his son Kunal Raut.

In Chandrapur, the fifth constituency going to polls in the first phase, the Congress has to choose between state opposition leader Vijay Wadettiwar's daughter Shivani and local MLA Pratibha Dhanorkar.
 

Chandrapur was the only Lok Sabha constituency won by the Congress in Maharashtra in the 2019 elections. The BJP has fielded state minister Sudhir Mungantiwar from Chandrapur.

The last date for filing nominations for the first phase of elections is March 27.

With this, the Congress has now declared a total of 183 candidates for the Lok Sabha polls.