Former Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi and former Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) students’ union chief Kanhaiya Kumar are among the 10 Lok Sabha candidates that the Congress announced on Sunday.
Apart from three seats in Delhi, where the party is contesting the Lok Sabha election in alliance with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the party announced six seats in Punjab and one seat of Uttar Pradesh.
However, the suspense around Amethi and Rae Bareli continues as the party is yet to state whether a member of the Gandhi family will contest these seats. While Rahul Gandhi represented Amethi thrice since 2004 before losing to BJP’s Smriti Irani in 2019, former Congress chief Sonia Gandhi represented Rae Bareli for five consecutive terms. In U.P., however, the Congress announced the name of Ujjwal Revti Raman Singh from Allahabad Lok Sabha seat.
In Punjab, Mr. Channi has been fielded from the Jalandhar-SC seat, while sitting MPs Gurjeet Singh Aujla and Amar Singh have been renominated from Amritsar and Fatehgarh Sahib-SC respectively. Former MP Dharvir Gandhi will be contesting from the Patiala Lok Sabha seat. His candidature comes days after he joined the Congress leaving the AAP.
The party has also nominated its farmers wing (All India Kisan Congress) chief Sukhpal Singh Khaira from Sangrur and Jeet Mohinder Singh Sidhu from Bathinda, which is currently represented by Shiromani Akali Dal chief’s wife Harsimrat Kaur Badal.
According to the list, the party has fielded veteran politician J.P. Agarwal from the Chandni Chowk seat and youth leader Mr. Kumar from North East Delhi. Mr Kumar will be pitted against BJP’s Manoj Tiwari, the sole BJP candidate not replaced in the national capital. For North West Delhi, a reserved seat, the party announced the name of former MP Udit Raj.
So far, the Congress has announced candidates to 278 Lok Sabha seats.
