Congress releases third list of 57 candidates for Lok Sabha polls; Adhir Ranjan renominated from Berhampore

The Congress has left the Sikar Lok Sabha constituency in Rajasthan for the Communist Party of India (Marxist).

New Delhi: Congress on Friday announced the third list of 57 candidates for the Lok Sabha elections, including party’s leader in the Lower House Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, and announced its seat sharing arrangement with CPI(M) in Rajasthan where it gave one seat to the Left party.

The party has left the Sikar seat in Rajasthan for CPI(M), where the Left party has some hold. With this, the party has chosen candidates for 139 seats.

The decisions were taken at a meeting of Congress’ Central Election Committee chaired by party chief Mallikarjun Kharge and attended by panel members Sonia Gandhi, General Secretary (Organisation) K C Venugopal, Karnataka Minister K J George and Telangana Minister Uttam Kumar Reddy among others.

Congress has retained the MPs from two of the three sitting seats and in the third, the party has chosen sitting MP’s son.

Former Puducherry Chief Minister Ve Vaithilingam, sitting MP, will once again fight from Puducherry Lok Sabha seat.

Chowdhury, the Congress Leader in Lok Sabha, will contest again from his home turf Baharampur, while in Malda (South), sitting MP Abu Hashem Khan Choudhury has been replaced by his son Isha Khan Choudhury.

In West Bengal, the Congress has released names for eight seats and it includes former Rajya Sabha MP and former state chief Pradeep Bhattacharya. The party is in touch with the Left Front for a seat sharing arrangement.

Five more candidates have been chosen from Telangana, including Dr Mallu Ravi, brother of Deputy Chief Minister Bhatti Vikramarka. 

In Rajasthan’s Ganganagar, where the party was planning to field former Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi, the CEC has finally decided to field Congress Secretary Kuldeep Indora. While five seats were named today, the party had earlier chosen nine candidates.

Though not in the third list, sources said, the panel has also cleared the name of sitting MP Danish Ali, who quit BSP and joined the Congress on Wednesday, to fight from Amroha, while Imran Masood will fight from Saharanpur. Senior leader Akhilesh Prasad Singh will fight from Deoria.

While Yadav will take on Scindia, who had quit Congress earlier and is a union minister in the Modi government, sources said MP Congress chief Jeetu Patwaria is unlikely to contest. 

The CEC will meet again on Friday at 9:30 AM to discuss candidates for more seats and deliberations on the party’s choices for Amethi and Rae Bareli are likely to come up. Sources said some UP leaders raised the issue at the CEC meeting but there was no discussion on it.

Separately, sources said actress Swara Bhaskar reached out to the Congress leadership seeking a ticket from Mumbai North Central, which was once represented by party’s Priya Dutt. Sources said she contacted party’s Maharashtra in-charge Ramesh Chennithala.

Folk singer Neha Singh Rathore is also learnt to have expressed her interest in fighting the Lok Sabha elections on a Congress ticket.