The Congress on Wednesday announced its second list of 21 candidates for the Lok Sabha elections. All candidates announced in the new list are from Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra.
Party leader Raj Babbar will contest from Uttar Pradesh’s Moradabad, while former Bharatiya Janata Party MP Savitri Bai Phule will contest from Bahraich. Priya Dutt will continue from her Mumbai North Central seat. Kisan Congress chief Nana Patole, who joined the Congress from the BJP in January 2018, will be the party’s Nagpur candidate. BJP leader Nitin Gadkari is the sitting candidate from Nagpur.
Milind Deora will contest from Mumbai South and former Union ministers Sushil Kumar Shinde and Sriprakash Jaiswal will be fielded from Solapur and Kanpur.
In 2014 Lok Sabha elections, Babbar lost to BJP leader VK Singh from Ghaziabad. Phule joined the Congress earlier this month after quitting the BJP in December. Phule’s resignation had come after she criticised Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Adityanath for saying that Hindu deity Hanuman was a Dalit.
Dutt made her electoral debut from the sea in 2005 and retained it in 2009. In January, Dutt had said she will not contest the 2019 elections, in order to spend more time with her family. She had said that she had informed Congress President Rahul Gandhi of her decision. However, earlier on Wednesday, Dutt said she will fight Lok Sabha polls. “I am fighting this election. I am fighting for the future of my children. It is a fight to save our democracy,” ANI quoted her as saying.
The Congress had released its first list of 15 candidates on March 7. While Rahul Gandhi will contest from its traditional bastion of Amethi, Sonia Gandhi will contest polls from Rae Bareli constituency in the state.
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