Moily, Tharoor, Narayanasamy, Venugopal, Thomas to get tickets; Manish Tewari still waiting
Former Union Ministers Pawan Kumar Bansal and Subodh Kant Sahai were re-nominated by the Congress from Chandigarh and Ranchi, respectively as the Congress set aside the “tainted” argument while announcing the second list of 71 candidates on Thursday.
The list included actors-turned-politicians Raj Babbar from Ghaziabad and Nagma from Meerut. A surprise inclusion in the list is Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi’s aide and Youth Congress chief Rajeev Satav from Hingoli in Marathwada region. This seat was in the NCP’s quota, but last minute negotiations between the two parties have altered the position.
With the second list, the Congress has so far declared candidates for 261 seats. The party has changed four of the 194 candidates declared in the first list. Several Union Ministers including Veerappa Moily, Shashi Tharoor, V Narayanasamy, KC Venugopal, KV Thomas and Mullappally Ramchandran too figure in the list.
However, the party was silent on the candidature of Information & Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari, the MP from ludhiana, who strongly raked up the “tainted” issue apparently to sabotage the prospect of Bansal’s nomination. Tewari was reportedly eyeing the Chandigarh seat.
Dismissing as “completely unfounded” the speculation that he was reluctant to contest from ludhiana, Tewari said he has already conveyed to the Congress leadership his willingness to stand for elections from the constituency.
Besides, former Uttar Pradesh PCC chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi has been fielded from lucknow, the seat currently held by BJP’s lalji Tandon. Pratibha Singh, wife of Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, has been renominated from Mandi and Hamidullah Sayeed from lakshadweep.
AICC spokesperson Raj Babbar, who had defeated UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav’s wife Dimple Yadav in a by-election from Firozabad, has been shifted to Ghaziabad, a constituency currently represented by BJP chief Rajnath Singh.
The party has named Tarun Patel from Domariyaganj seat, which was represented by Jagdambika Pal, who recently left the Congress. Senior party leader Begum Noor Bano has been fielded from Moradabad, a Muslim-majority seat. In an earlier lok Sabha, she had represented Rampur.
The lone party MP from Jharkhand Subodh Kant Sahai again got a nomination despite opposition from a section of the leadership since his name figured in the coal scam.
Party veteran from Karnataka Janardhana Poojary will contest from Dakshin Kannada while party spokesperson PC Chacko’s constituency has been changed from Thrissur to Chalakudy. KP Dhannapalan will contest from Thrissur and Rajbala Ola, the daughter-in-law of late Union Minister Sisram Ola, has been fielded from Jhunjhunu in Rajasthan.
Sagar Meghe has been fielded from Wardha in place of his father Dutta Meghe. Congress has fielded Devendra Patel from Hoshangabad. Party MP from Hoshangabad Uday Pratap Singh joined the BJP last year.
The party has fielded former Maharashtra Minister Kalappa Avade from Hathkangale. Raju Shetty of Swabhimani Shetkari Sangathana, which is now part of Shiv Sena-BJP combine, is the sitting MP there. Bhakta Charan Das has been re-nominated from Kalahandi in Odisha.
The seats, where candidates have been changed include Meerut (UP) where Nagma replaced Dayanand Gupta; Raigarh where Aarti Singh replaced Maneka Singh; Raipur, where Satyanarayan Sharma replaced Chhaya Verma. Both the seats are in Chhattisgarh. Daryl William Cherran Momin replaced D Zennith M Sangma in Tura, Meghalaya.