Digvijaya Singh will be fighting from his stronghold Rajgarh.
Credit: PTI Photo
New Delhi: Senior leader Digvijaya Singh, War Room chief Sashikumar Senthil, Lok Sabha Whip Manickam Tagore, former union minister Kantilal Bhuria and Uttar Pradesh chief Ajay Rai are among 45 candidates for Lok Sabha announced on Saturday by the Congress, which will be leaving one seat in Rajasthan for Hanuman Beniwal's RLP.
The fourth list of Congress takes the total number of candidates to 183, while it has left four seats to its allies in Kerala, two in Rajasthan, one in Assam, two in Gujarat and one in Haryana so far. Congress is only fighting nine out of 39 seats in Tamil Nadu.
Former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijaya, who is presently a Rajya Sabha MP, will be fighting from his stronghold Rajgarh while Rai has been fielded once again from Varanasi to take on Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Senthil, a former IAS officer who belongs to Dalit community, will be replacing sitting MP Dr K Jayakumar in Tiruvallur seat in Tamil Nadu, while Tagore, who is also party incharge in Andhra Pradesh, will be seeking mandate from Virudhunagar for the fourth time. Bhuria is fighting from Madhya Pradesh's Ratlam.
In the fourth list, 12 candidates are from Madhya Pradesh, nine from UP, seven from Tamil Nadu, four from Maharashtra, two each from Jammu and Kashmir, Manipiur, Uttarakhand and Rajasthan and one each from Assam, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Chhattisgarh, Mizoram and West Bengal.
The Congress has left Nagaur seat to RLP, the second constituency it left for an ally. Earlier, it had announced that Sikar will go to CPI(M) in which former MLA Amra Ram is likely to fight.
Choudhary Lal Singh, who merged his party with Congress, will fight from Uddhampur against Jitendra Singh. Lal SIngh has been a two-term Congress MP earlier from the seat.
BSP MP Danish Ali, who also joined Congress, will be fighting from his sitting seat Amroha. Former MP Imran Masood will fight from Saharanpur while Akhilesh Pratap Singh will be fighting from Deoria.
In strife-torn Manipur, Congress has announced the candidature of JNU professor Angomcha Bimol Akoijam from Inner Manipur while Alfred Kanngam S Arthur from Outer Manipur.
Besides Tagore and Senthil, sitting MPs S Jothimani (Karur), Karti Chidambaram (Sivaganga) and Vijay Vasant (Kanyakumar) are also among those fielded. Congress will be fighting nine seats in Tamil Nadu and it is yet to announce candidates for two more seats.
Former Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat's son Virender will fight from Haridwar while Prakash Joshi is being fielded from Nainital-Udham Singh Nagar.