The Aryavarth Express
Agency(New Delhi): In a crucial move ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, the Congress party on Saturday unveiled its fourth batch of candidates, totaling 45, for various constituencies across India. Among the notable decisions, the party has positioned its Uttar Pradesh unit chief, Ajay Rai, against Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the Varanasi constituency, marking Rai’s third attempt to contest against the PM after defeats in 2014 and 2019.
Digvijaya Singh, a seasoned Congress leader, is set to contest from Madhya Pradesh’s Rajgarh, while the party has placed Lal Singh, a recent addition to Congress, in Jammu and Kashmir’s Udhampur to challenge Union Minister Jitendra Singh. In Maharashtra’s Nagpur, MLA Vikas Thakare is tasked with competing against Union Minister Nitin Gadkari.
The distribution of candidates covers a broad geographic range, including 12 seats in Madhya Pradesh, nine in Uttar Pradesh, seven in Tamil Nadu, four in Maharashtra, and smaller allocations across Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, Manipur, Jammu and Kashmir, West Bengal, Assam, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Mizoram, and Chhattisgarh. Notably, Congress has ceded the Nagaur seat in Rajasthan to the Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP) led by Hanuman Beniwal, aiming to strengthen its appeal among the Jat community and recover from previous electoral setbacks.
In Uttar Pradesh, the Congress’s strategy involves an alliance with the Samajwadi Party, focusing on 17 seats. The lineup includes notable names like Danish Ali for Amroha, Imran Masood for Saharanpur, and Alok Mishra for Kanpur. Meanwhile, speculation continues around the potential candidacies of Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra in the traditional strongholds of Amethi and Raebareli, respectively.
The announcement also highlights Congress’s commitment to Tamil Nadu, re-nominating figures such as Karti Chidambaram for Sivaganga and Manickam Tagore for Virudhunagar, among others. In Madhya Pradesh, apart from Digvijaya Singh in Rajgarh, the party has nominated candidates like Kantilal Bhuria for Ratlam and Arun Shrivastav for Bhopal.
Other significant nominations include Kawasi Lakhma for Bastar, Raman Bhalla for Jammu, and former Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat’s son, Virender Rawat, for Haridwar. With these announcements, Congress has now declared a total of 183 candidates for the upcoming seven-phase Lok Sabha elections starting April 19, aiming to make substantial electoral gains against the ruling BJP.