New Delhi: The Congress Wednesday evening released its second list of candidates for the Lok Sabha elections, including 16 from Uttar Pradesh and five from Maharashtra.
Former MPs Priya Dutt and Milind Deora have been fielded from Mumbai North Central and Mumbai South respectively, while former union home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde will contest from Solapur.
Dutt, a two-time former Lok Sabha MP, had reportedly said she would not contest the elections, having lost her seat to the BJP’s Poonam Mahajan in 2014. Dutt’s late father, actor-turned-politician Sunil Dutt, was a senior Congress leader who served as union minister under UPA-I.
Deora, meanwhile, had reportedly conveyed to the party that he wouldn’t contest, having put out a series of tweets criticising the Congress. His father, the late Murli Deora, was also a union minister.
Also read: Sonia Gandhi will contest Lok Sabha polls from Rae Bareli, ends retirement rumours
In UP, meanwhile, state Congress chief Raj Babbar will contest from Moradabad. The party has also given a ticket to former BJP MP Savitribai Phule, who recently joined the party. She will contest from the seat she had won in 2014, Bahraich.
Other prominent candidates announced are Lalitesh Pati Tripathi from Mirzapur and Sanjay Singh from Sultanpur.
With these names, the total number of Congress candidates announced for UP has gone up to 27. In its first list, featuring 15 names — 11 from UP and four from Gujarat — the Congress had announced that its former president Sonia Gandhi would contest from her pocket borough of Rae Bareli, despite rumours that she would retire from active politics. Her son and party chief Rahul Gandhi will defend his Amethi seat.
The Election Commission Sunday announced the schedule for the Lok Sabha elections, which will be held in seven phases, beginning 11 April. Uttar Pradesh is quite significant as it contributes 80 seats to the Lok Sabha, while Maharashtra is the state with the second highest number of seats, 48. The Congress is allying with Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party to take on the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance in Maharashtra.
Both candidates represent the cosmopolitan spirit of Bombay, in a way that Sanjay Nirupam does not.