New Delhi: The Congress Sunday fielded Karti Chidambaram, son of former finance minister P. Chidambaram, from the Sivaganga Lok Sabha seat in Tamil Nadu.
It also nominated Rajya Sabha MP B.K. Hariprasad as its candidate for Bangalore South in Karnataka and Tariq Anwar for Katihar in Bihar, as part of its ninth list of candidates for the Lok Sabha elections.
Karti has been on the Central Bureau of Investigation’s scanner over the last few years, and was even arrested in February last year for allegedly taking money to help get the Foreign Investment Promotion Board’s (FIPB) clearance for INX Media way back in 2007. He was later granted bail.
The agency alleged that Karti received funds from INX Media by using the influence of his father, who was then the union finance minister in Manmohan Singh’s UPA government.
The Congress was in a bind whether to field him for the Lok Sabha as he was facing corruption charges. Both Karti and his father have denied all allegations.
The senior Chidambaram was the Lok Sabha MP from Sivaganga seven times. Karti fought the 2014 election from the seat on a Congress ticket, but finished a distant fourth as the AIADMK swept the state.
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Other candidates
The ninth list of candidates released Sunday by the Congress featured 10 names, with the opposition party declaring Mohammed Javed as its candidate from Kishanganj in Bihar and Suresh Dhanorkar from Chandrapur in Maharashtra. Hidayat Patel has been fielded from Maharashtra’s Akola while the party has fielded Haji Farooq Mir from Jammu and Kashmir’s Baramulla.
Subhash Wankhede has been fielded from Hingoli in Maharashtra, Uday Singh a.k.a. Pappu Singh has been fielded from Purnia in Bihar and Kishor Uttamrao Gajbhiye from Ramtek in Maharashtra.
The total number of candidates announced by the Congress is now 228.
Also read: Congress nominates 3 former CMs in its eighth list of candidates