The Congress on Thursday evening released its second list of candidates for the Lok Sabha polls. Among the 71 named in the list are six Union Ministers — M. Veerappa Moily, V. Narayanasamy, K.V. Thomas, Shashi Tharoor, K.C. Venugopal, and Mullapally Ramchandran — and two Ministers who stepped down owing to corruption allegations — Pawan Kumar Bansal and Subodh Kant Sahay. Despite the allegations, no FIR or charge sheet was filed against either of them. Mr. Bansal and Mr. Sahay will contest from Chandigarh and Ranchi respectively.
Just like the first list, approximately 15 per cent of the names in the second are of women.
Begum Noor Bano will contest from Moradabad, represented by cricketer Mohammad Azharuddin. Her son, Kazim Ali Khan, will contest from Ms. Bano former constituency — Rampur. Actor Nagma, best known for her roles in Tamil and Telugu films, will stand from Meerut; Rajbala Ola, daughter-in-law of the late Sis Ram Ola, has been given the ticket from Jhunjhunu in Rajasthan; former UPCC chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi will contest again from Lucknow; Pratibha Singh, wife of Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, has been re-nominated from Mandi.
Youth Congress chief Rajeev Satav is the surprise candidate from Hingoli in the Maharashtra. The seat was initially promised to the NCP. Sagar Meghe has been fielded from Wardha in place of his father and sitting MP Datta Meghe. Former Maharashtra Minister Kalappa Avade has been fielded from Hathkangale. Party spokesperson and actor Raj Babbar will contest from Ghaziabad, currently represented by BJP chief Rajnath Singh. Mr. Babbar had defeated U.P. Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav’s wife Dimple Yadav in a by-election in Firozabad. The ticket for Domariyaganj has gone to Tarun Patel, who replaces Jagdambika Pal, the sitting MP, who quit the Congress recently.
Janardhana Poojary has got the Dakshin Kannada ticket, while party spokesperson P.C. Chacko and K.P. Dhannapalan, both sitting MPs, have swapped constituencies in Kerala. The former will contest from Chalakudy and the latter from Thrissur. Bhakta Charan Das has been re-nominated from Kalahandi in Odisha and Hamidullah Sayeed from Lakshadweep.
The Congress has so far announced candidates for 261 seats. Four of the 194 candidates declared earlier have been changed: Ms. Nagma has replaced Dayanand Gupta in Meerut, Daryl William Cherran Momin has been nominated instead of Zennith M. Sangma in Tura (Meghalaya), Aarti Singh for Maneka Singh in Raigarh and Satyanarayan Sharma for Chhaya Verma in Raipur.
