Cong announces fifth list for UP assembly polls

New Delhi, Jan 8: MLA Nawab Kazim Ali Khan, who defected from BSP last week, figures in the fifth list of 62 candidates announced by the Congress today for Uttar Pradesh assembly elections. With this Congress has announced a total of 326 candidates.

Seven candidates have been replaced from the earlier list. Khan, son of senior Congress leader Begum Noor Bano, has been nominated from Suar in Rampur district of the state.

The list also contains the name of Masood Ahmad, a former minister, who had joined the Congress only recently. He has been nominated from Tanda Assembly constituency.

Congress has left as many as 45 seats to Ajit Singh's RLD which reached an alliance last month. The seats for RLD have been given in Singh's stronghold of western Uttar Pradesh.

UP has a total 403 seats and Rahul Gandhi is leading the campaign for Mission UP 2012 with the aim of bringing the Congress to power in the crucial state where it is in political wilderness for the last 22 years in the wake of the Mandal-Mandir upsurge. The Uttar Pradesh elections will be held in seven phases between February 4 and 28.

PTI