Congress's experiment with the selection of candidates in the forthcoming assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh continued as, like its first list, many ordinary faces again made their way into the second list of the party released on Thursday.
The second list of 41 candidates, mainly from the western region in the state, contained 16 women nominees keeping in tune with the party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra's announcement that 40 per cent tickets would be reserved for the women candidates in the polls. With this, the Congress has so far declared 166 candidates for the UP polls.
Poonam Pandit, who had taken active part in the protests against the now scrapped farm laws, has been fielded from Syana seat, while Tukki Mal Khatik, a youth leader, who had helped hundreds of migrant laborers when they were returning home on foot after the first lockdown, was made a candidate from Khurja seat.
From Agra Cantonment seat, the party has fielded Sikander Valmiki, who had resigned from his government job to take up the issues facing his community.
Sangita Tyagi, the wife of Congress spokesman Rajiv Tyagi, who died following a cardiac arrest during a TV debate, has been fielded from Sahibabad seat in Ghaziabad.
The first list of the party had also included Unnao rape survivor's mother Asha Singh, anti-CAA activist Sadaf Zafar, Tribal leader Ramraj Gond and Asha worker Poonam Pandey. As promised by Priyanka, the first list also contained 50 women, which formed 40 per cent of the total candidates figuring in the list of the party for the state.
Priyanka had then said that her party had given preference to those who had raised their voice against injustice and fought for restoration of the rights of the weaker sections. ''We want to usher in a new kind of politics in UP....our campaign will be positive and we will be focusing on the real issues facing the common people,'' Priyanka said.
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