Congress Fields 14 Candidates For Lok Sabha Polls, Challenges Scindia And Chouhan

The Congress party has recently unveiled its eighth list of candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, introducing 14 new names into the fray. Among the notable nominations is Rao Yadvendra Singh, who will be contesting against Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia in Madhya Pradesh's Guna constituency. Additionally, Pratap Bhanu Sharma has been slated to challenge former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan in Vidisha, with Tarvar Singh Lodhi nominated for Damoh.

This latest announcement also includes candidate names for four seats each in Uttar Pradesh and Telangana, alongside three each in Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand, bringing the total count of Congress candidates to 208. In Uttar Pradesh, the party has nominated Dolly Sharma for Ghaziabad, Nakul Dubey for Sitapur, Shivram Valmiki for Bulandshahr SC seat, and Virendra Chaudhary for Maharajganj. For Jharkhand, Kalicharan Munda will contest from Khunti ST seat, Sukhdeo Bhagat from Lohardaga ST, and Jai Prakashbhai Patel from Hazaribagh.

In Telangana, Congress has chosen Athram Suguna for Adilabad, Tatiparthi Jeevan Reddy for Nizamabad, Neelam Madhu for Medak, and Chamala Kiran Kumar Reddy for Bhongir. These decisions were made following a meeting of top Congress leaders in New Delhi to deliberate on the party's Lok Sabha poll candidates across Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, Goa, and Jharkhand.

The meeting saw the presence of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, former party chief Sonia Gandhi, party general secretary K C Venugopal, and members of its Central Election Committee (CEC), including senior leaders Ambika Soni, Madhusudan Mistry, Uttam Kumar Reddy, and Salman Khurshid.

Despite these announcements, there remains uncertainty over the high-profile seats of Amethi and Raebareli in Uttar Pradesh. State Congress chief Ajai Rai indicated that there had been no recent discussions on these two seats. Previously, Rai had suggested that members of the Gandhi family should contest from these constituencies as per the local demand. Speculation continues that Rahul Gandhi may represent Amethi again and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra might contest from Raebareli.

The Congress is part of an alliance with the Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh and will be contesting 17 Lok Sabha seats in the state. The Lok Sabha elections are set to occur in seven phases starting April 19, with the first phase's nomination filing concluding on Wednesday. The vote count is scheduled for June 4.