The Congress on Thursday announced party president Rahul Gandhi as its candidate from Amethi and Sonia Gandhi from Rae Bareli.
The party released its first list of 15 Lok Sabha candidates for Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat after a meeting of its Central Election Committee.
The move, ahead of the official notification by the Election Commission, brings an end to speculation about Ms. Gandhi’s political role after stepping down as party chief in December 2017. For some time, Ms. Gandhi's health has been a matter of speculation and questions were asked if she would continue as an MP. Speculation also centred on Priyanka Gandhi Vadra replacing her mother in Rae Bareli.
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Among the 15 candidates announced, four are from Gujarat and 11 from U.P.. The Congressis the first off the block with candidate list.
In Uttar Pradesh, former Union Ministers and MPs have been named. While Salman Khursid will contest the Farrukhabad seat, R.P.N. Singh has been named from Kushinagar. Jitin Prasad is the candidate for Dhaurahra and Anu Tandon for Unnao.
Former U.P. Congress chief Nirmal Khatri will contest Faizabad and Salim Sherwani Badaun. Imran Masood is the candidate for Saharanpur.
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In Gujarat, former Congress chief Bharatsinh Solanki has been fielded from Anand, Raju Parmar from Ahmedabad West and Prashant Patel from Vadodara.