Lok Sabha Elections: Congress To Field Ajay Rai From Varanasi Against PM Modi, Say Sources

The Congress has decided to field UP party president Ajay Rai from Varanasi against PM Modi.

Lok Sabha Elections: The Congress on Thursday finalised the names of candidates for eight Uttar Pradesh Lok Sabha seats. According to ABP News sources, UP Congress President Ajay Rai is set to contest elections from Varanasi against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The sources further stated that no discussions were held about Raebareli and Amethi. The grand old party has decided to field Ajay Rai from Varanasi, Ramnath Sikarwar from Fatehpur Sikri, Tanuj Punia from Barabanki, Pradeep Jain from Jhansi, Danish Ali from Amroha, Imran Masood from Saharanpur, Sadal Prasad from Bansgaon and Akhilesh Pratap Singh from Deoria.

The Congress has so far released two lists of candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections and is yet to announce its third list. The first list was released on March 8 comprised 39 names, including Bhupesh Bhaghel, Rahul Gandhi, KC Venugopal, Shashi Tharoor and DK Suresh. The party revealed its second list on March 12 comrising names of 43 candidates.

The list featured prominent names such as Nakul Nath from Madhya Pradesh's Chhindwara and Vaibhav Gehlot from Rajasthan's Jalore. Among the notable candidates, Gaurav Gogoi, the deputy leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha, has been nominated to contest from Assam's Jorhat, while sitting MP Pradyut Bordoloi will represent Nagaon.

The Congress has repeated Rahul Gandhi from Wayanad, from where he registered victory in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. Out of the 39 names on the list, 24 candidates are from SC-ST, OBC, and minority communities. 

Meanwhile, the Bharatiya Janata Party has named Tamil Nadu party president Annamalai and former Telangan governor Tamilisai Soundararajan in its third list of candidates for the Lok Sabha elections 2024. A total of 9 candidates have been named in its third list. The saffron party had earlier named of 267 candidates in two lists released on March 2 and 13.

The first list with 195 names featured PM Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Kiren Rijiju, Tapir Gao, Rajeev Chandrashekhar, Shivraj Singh Chauhan, Arjun Ram Meghwal, Bandi Sanjay Kumar, Ajay Mishra Teni, Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, and Nisith Pramanick, among others.

The BJP's second list had 72 names, including those of Manohar Lal Khattar, Anurag Singh Thakur, Trivendra Singh Rawat, DK Aruna, Pankaja Munde, Bharati Pawar, Tejasvi Surya, PC Mohan, and BY Raghavendra.