Lok Sabha elections 2024: Congress releases 4th list, Varanasi name picked, suspense over Amethi

The Congress late Saturday released its fourth list of 45 candidates for the Lok Sabha election, fielding its Uttar Pradesh unit chief Ajay Rai from Varanasi to take on Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The Congress fielded its veteran leader Digvijaya Singh from Madhya Pradesh's Rajgarh and newly-inducted leader Lal Singh from Jammu and Kashmir's Udhampur.
 Former BSP leader Danish Ali will contest from Amroha in Uttar Pradesh, and ex-IAS officer Sasikanth Senthil has been selected for Tirvallur in Tamil Nadu, replacing sitting MP K Jayakumar.

The Congress declared four candidates for Lok Sabha elections from Maharashtra, fielding MLA Vikas Thakre against Union minister and BJP stalwart Nitin Gadkari from Nagpur.

In Tamil Nadu, the Congress dropped Jayakumar and A Chellakumar. In Krishnagiri, represented by Chellakumar, the party fielded K Gopinath. 
Five sitting MPs – S Jothimani (Karur), Karti Chidambaram (Sivaganga), Manickam Tagore (Virudhunagar), Vijay Vasanth (Kanyakumari) and M K Vishnu Prasad (Cuddalore) have been repeated.

Vishnu Prasad is the sitting MP from Arani seat. He has now been shifted to Cuddalore, which was with the DMK last time.

The party renominated sitting MP Kuldeep Rai Sharma from Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Kawasi Lakhma from Bastar, former AICC secretary Prakash Joshi from Nainital-Udhamsingh Nagar and former Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat’s son Virender Rawat from Hardiwar .

In UP, the suspense over whether Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra would contest from the Amethi and Raebareli remains. Other names picked include MPs Imran Masood from Saharanpur and Pradeep Jain Aditya from Jhansi, P L Punia’s son Tanuj from Barabanki, Akhilesh Pratap Singh from Deoria, Sadan Prasad from Bansgaon and Ram Nath Sikarwar from Fetehpur Sikri.

Among the candidates announced in MP are Guddu Raja Bundela, the son of two-time former Congress MP Sujan Singh Bundela, from Sagar.

Guddu Raja joined the Congress in September last year, just ahead of the state Assembly elections.

In Assam’s Lakhimpur, the party has fielded Uday Shankar Hazarika, who left the BJP and joined the Congress a few months ago. The last date for filing nominations for the first phase of elections is March 27. With this, the Congress has now declared a total of 183 candidates for the Lok Sabha polls.