LS polls: Congress releases second list of 43 candidates, Nakul Nath to contest from Chhindwara

NEW DELHI: Congress General Secretary KC Venugopal on Tuesday announced the second list of 43 candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls in which some prominent names including Kamal Nath's son Nakul Nath, Ashok Gehlot's son Vaibhav Gehlot and Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi have been mentioned.

The names have been announced for Lok Sabha seats in Assam, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, Uttarakhand and Daman and Diu.

Addressing the press conference, KC Venugopal said, "In this list, out of the 43 candidates, 10 are General candidates, 13 OBC candidates, 10 SC candidates, 9 ST candidates and 1 Muslim candidate."

A total of 12 candidates have been announced from Assam, 10 from Madhya Pradesh, 7 from Gujarat, 10 from Rajasthan, three from Uttarakhand and one from Daman and Diu.

In Madhya Pradesh, the Congress has fielded Nakul Nath who is the son of a senior party leader Kamal Nath from the Chhindwara constituency. Phool Singh Baraiya has been fielded from Bhind, whereas Pankaj Ahirwar will contest from Tikamgarh.

Siddharth Kushwaha will contest from Satna, whereas Kamleshwar Patel will fight the Lok Sabha polls from Sidhi. The party has also given the ticket to Omkar Singh Markam from Mandla. Other names that have been announced are Rajendra Malviya from Dewas, Radheshyam Muvel from Dhar, Porlal Kharte from Khargone, and Ramu Tekam from Betul. In Assam, Gaurav Gogoi has been fielded from the Jorhat Lok Sabha seat.

Congress has also fielded Garjan Mashhary from Kokrajhar, Rakibul Hussain from Dhubri, Deep Bayan from Barpeta, Madhab Rajbanshi from Darrang Udalguri, Mira Barthakur Goswami has been given a ticket from Guwahati Lok Sabha seat, Joyram Engleng from Diphu, Hafiz Rashid Ahmed Choudhury from Karimganj, Surjya Kanta Sarkar from Silchar, Pradyut Bordoloi from Nagaon, Roselina Tirkey from Kaziranga and Prem Lal Ganju from Sonitpur.

On being announced as a candidate from Assam's Jorhat for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi said, "I want to thank the central leadership of Congress party for giving me this responsibility. We will fight the elections with full strength and try to win it. Since the list is final now, we will strategize accordingly..."

In Gujarat, Congress has fielded Nitishbhai Lalan from Kachchh Lok Sabha constituency, Geniben Thakor from Banaskantha, Rohan Gupta from Ahemdabad East, Bharat Makwana from Ahemdabad West, Lalitbhai Vasoya from Porbandar, Siddharth Chaudhary from Bardoli and Anantbhai Patel from Valsad. Rahul Kaswan who joined Congress after quitting BJP has been fielded from Rajasthan's Churu.

Kaswan is a sitting MP from Churu. Other names that have been announced from Rajasthan are Brijendra Ola from Jhunjunu, Lalit Yadav from Alwar, Sanjana Jatav from Bharatpur, Harish Chandra Meena from Tonk-Sawai Madhopur, Karan Singh Uchiyarda from Jodhpur. Vaibhav Gehlot, the son of former Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has been fielded from Jalore Lok Sabha seat.

The party has also fielded Tarachand Meena from Udaipur. Udaylal Ajana has been given a ticket from Chittorgarh. In Uttarakhand, Jot Singh Guntsola will contest from Tehri Garhwal. Congress has also fielded Ganesh Godiyal from Garhwal Lok Sabha seat while Pradeep Tamta will contest from Almora. Congress has also fielded Ketan Dahyabhai Patel from Daman & Diu constituency. With the announcement of 43 candidates, Congress has so far declared names on 82 Lok Sabha seats.

Meanwhile, the BJP has also declared candidates for 195 Lok Sabha seats. The party also held its Central Election Committee meeting on Monday night.

The Lok Sabha polls are likely to be held in April-May this year.