Zee Media Bureau
New Delhi: The All India Congress Committee (AICC) on Thursday announced its second list of candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls with Rita Bahuguna Joshi and filmstars-turned-politicians Raj Babbar and Nagma among the prominent names.
Raj Babbar will contest from Ghaziabad and Rita Bahuguna Joshi from Lucknow. And Nagma will be contesting from Meerut.
Meanwhile, Congress has named Begum Noor Bano from Moradabad, KV Thomas from Ernakulam (Kerala), Subodh Kant Sahay from Ranchi (Jharkhand) and PC Chacko from Chalakudy (Kerala).
Shashi Tharoor will be contesting from Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala), Pawan Bansal from Chandigarh and V Narayanasamy from Puducherry.
Former Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal was re-nominated from Chandigarh brushing aside the "taint" on him.
Bansal had to resign from the cabinet in the wake of the Rs ten crore cash-for-post bribery scam allegedly involving his nephew Vijay Singla and nine other people when the Congress leader had held the Railways portfolio.
The list includes renomination of several Union Ministers including M Veerappa Moily, Shashi Tharoor, V Narayanasamy, K C Venugopal, K V Thomas and Mullapally Ramchandran.
Youth Congress chief Rajeevv Satav will be fielded from Hingoli.
Satav, a close associate of Rahul Gandhi, has been named from Hingoli seat in Marathwada region of Maharashtra which was in NCP quota under the seat-sharing understanding. Apparently, some last-minute talks at the top level clinched the deal in his favour.
Party spokesperson Raj Babbar, who had defeated UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav`s wife Dimple Yadav in a bye-election from Firozabad was 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 has left Congress.
The lone party MP from Jharkhand Subodhkant Sahay again got a nomination despite opposition from a section of the leadeship who doubted his winnability. There was speculation that Babbar, Nagma or cricketer Mohammed Azharuddin, the MP from Moradabad in UP, could be fielded from the Jharkhand capital.
Senior party leader Begum Noor Bano has been fielded from Moradabad, a Muslim-majority seat. In an earlier Lok Sabha, she had represented Rampur.
Party veteran from Karnataka Janardhana Pujari has been chosen for Dakshin Kannada seat while party spokesperson P C Chacko`s constituency has been changed from Thrissur to Chalakudy. K P Dhannapalan contests from Thrissur.
With the second list, Congress has so far declared candidates for 261 seats and four of the 194 candidates declared in the first list have been changed.
Here is the complete list of the 71 candidates : —
#Congress List of Candidates For Lok Sabha Elections 2014 (Part-1) pic.twitter.com/E9ZFykaR1B
— INC India (@INCIndia) March 13, 2014
#Congress List of Candidates For Lok Sabha Elections 2014 (Part-2) pic.twitter.com/MZV8ydFoGd
— INC India (@INCIndia) March 13, 2014
#Congress List of Candidates For Lok Sabha Elections 2014 (Part-3) pic.twitter.com/o7IIsgvwhU
— INC India (@INCIndia) March 13, 2014
(With PTI Inputs)
