The Congress released the fourth list of candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. The grand old party has fielded Digvijay Singh from Rajgarh Lok Sabha Constituency, UP Congress President Ajay Rai from Varanasi, Imran Masood from Saharanpur, Virender Rawat from Haridwar, and Danish Ali from Amroha.
The grand old party left Rajasthan's Nagaur Lok Sabha seat for Hanuman Beniwal's Rashtriya Loktantrik Party. Rai has been fielded against Prime Minister Narendra Modi from Varanasi for the third straight time. He conceded defeat at the hands of PM Modi on the previous two occasions, the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
The Congress on Saturday announced the name of sitting MLA Kawasi Lakhma as the Lok Sabha candidate for Chhattisgarh's Naxal-affected Bastar (ST) seat, which will go to polls in the first phase on April 19. The party has so far named seven candidates in the state, which has 11 Lok Sabha seats. The filing of nominations for the Bastar seat began on March 20.
Lakhma, an influential tribal leader, is a six-term MLA and has represented Konta Assembly seat in Sukma district since 1998. He was Industry and Excise minister in the previous Bhupesh Baghel-led Congress government in the state. Lakhma has considerable influence in the Bastar region in south Chhattisgarh.
Janata Dal United MLA Bima Bharti tendered her resignation from the party's primary membership on Saturday. Following her resignation, she joined Rashtriya Janata Dal. After joining RJD, Bima Bharti said that if the party will ask, she will contest Lok Sabha elections from Purnia seat.
The BJP's Central Election Committee met in the national capital on Saturday to finalise the party's candidates in several states for the Lok Sabha polls. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and BJP president J P Nadda were joined by other CEC members as they went over the list of probables to take a final call. The states for which candidates were discussed include Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Rajasthan.
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