Lok Sabha polls: Congress releases fifth list of candidates

New Delhi: The Congress on Sunday said it is fielding Pratibha Dhanorkar, an MLA from its sitting seat in Maharashtra's Chandrapur, which was represented by her late husband Suresh Dhanorkar.

With this, the party has announced 12 candidates in the state where it is fighting the polls in alliance with Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar).

Suresh Dhanorkar passed away last year due to deteriorating health. This was the lone seat the Congress won in 2019 from Maharashtra.

Pratibha will be taking on Maharashtra Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar in the Lok Sabha election.

The party also replaced its Jaipur candidate Sunil Sharma amid complaints that he was part of a rightwing group that regularly ridicules the Congress. Sharma has been replaced by former minister Pratap Singh Khachariyawas.

The party also chose Murari Lal Meena from Dausa.

With this, the Congress has chosen 18 candidates from Rajasthan, while two seats have been left to CPI(M) and RLP. Rajasthan has 25 seats.

The party has so far announced 183 candidates in five lists. Of this, its Ahmedabad (East) candidate Rohan Gupta withdrew from the contest citing family issues as well as accusing some Congress leaders of spreading canards against him.