LS Polls: Ajay Rai To Face PM Modi In Varanasi Again. Digvijaya Singh, Danish Ali Feature In Fourth Congress List

The Congress released the fourth list of 46 candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha election naming UP Congress President Ajay Rai, Digvijay Singh, Imran Masood, and Danish Ali among other names.

File Photo of Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee President Ajay Rai

Source : PTI

Lok Sabha Elections: The Congress party unveiled its fourth list of 45 candidates for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections, revealing its strategic moves for key constituencies across the country. In a notable move, the party has nominated its Uttar Pradesh unit chief Ajay Rai to contest from Varanasi, challenging Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his own constituency.

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. 

Veteran leader Digvijaya Singh has been fielded from Madhya Pradesh's Rajgarh, while the newly-inducted Lal Singh will contest from Jammu and Kashmir's Udhampur against Union Minister Jitendra Singh. Notably, MLA Vikas Thakare has been tasked with taking on Union Minister Nitin Gadkari in Maharashtra's Nagpur.

The party's fourth list covers candidates for 12 seats in Madhya Pradesh, nine in Uttar Pradesh, seven in Tamil Nadu, four in Maharashtra, and two each in Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, Manipur, and Jammu and Kashmir. Additionally, one candidate each has been named for West Bengal, Assam, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Mizoram, and Chhattisgarh.

SI. No.	States	Constituencies		Candidates
1	Assam	12	LAKHIMPUR	Uday Shankar Hazarika
2	Andaman & Nicobar Islands	1	Andaman & Nicobar Islands	Kuldeep Rai Sharma
3	Chhattisgarh	10	BASTAR (ST)	Kawasi Lakhma
4	Jammu & Kashmir	4	UDHAMPUR	Ch. Lal Singh
5	Jammu & Kashmir	5	JAMMU	Raman Bhalla
6	Madhya Pradesh	5	SAGAR	Guddu Raja Bundela
7	Madhya Pradesh	10	REWA	Nilam Mishra
8	Madhya Pradesh	12	SHAHDOL (ST)	Phundelal Singh Marko
9	Madhya Pradesh	13	JABALPUR	Dinesh Yadav
10	Madhya Prad&sh	15	BALAGHAT	Samrat Saraswat
11	Madhya Pradesh	17	HOSHANGABAD	Sanjay Sharma
12	Madhya Pradesh	19	BHOPAL	Arun Shrivastav
13	Madhya Pradesh	20	RAJGARH	Digvijaya Singh
14	Madhya Pradesh	22	UJJAIN (SC)	Mahesh Parmar
15	Madhya Pradesh	23	MANDSAUR	Dilip Singh Gurjar
16	Madhya Pradesh	24	RATLAM (ST)	Kantilal Bhuria
17	Madhya Pradesh	26	INDORE	Akshay Bam
18	Maharashtra	9	RAMTEK (SC)	Rashmi Shyamkumar Barve
19	Maharashtra	10	NAGPUR	Vikas Thakare
20	Maharashtra	11	BHANDARA GONDIYA	Prashant Yadavrao Padole
21	Maharashtra	12	GADCHIROLI-CHIMUR (ST)	Namdev Dasaram Kirsan
22	Manipur	1	INNER MANIPUR	Angomcha Bimol Akoijam
23	Manipur	2	OUTER MANIPUR (ST)	Alfred Kanngam S.Arthur
24	Mizoram	1	MIZORAM (ST)	Lalbiakzama
25	Rajasthan	6	JAIPUR RURAL	Anil Chopra
26	Rajasthan	10	KARAULI - DHOLPUR ·SC	Bhajan Lal Jatav
27	Rajasthan	14	NAGAUR	Left for RLP
28	Tamil Nadu	1	TIRUVALLUR (SC)	Sasikanth Senthil
29	Tamil Nadu	9	KRISHNAGIRI	K.Gopinath
30	Tamil Nadu	23	KARUR	S. Jothimani
31	Tamil Nadu	26	CUDDALORE	M.K. Vishnu Prasad
32	Tamil Nadu	31	SIVAGANGA	A. Karti P Chidambaram
33	Tamil Nadu	34	VIRUDHUNAGAR	B. Manickam Tagore
34	Tamil Nadu	39	KANNIYAKUMARI	Vijay Vasanth
35	Uttar Pradesh	1	SAHARANPUR	Imran Masood
36	Uttar Pradesh	9	AMROHA	Danish Ali
37	Uttar Pradesh	19	FATEHPUR SIKRI	Ram Nath Sikarwar
38	Uttar Pradesh	43	KANPUR	Alok Mishra
39	Uttar Pradesh	46	JHANSI	Pradeep Jain Aditya
40	Uttar Pradesh	53	BARABANKI (SC)	Tanuj Punia
41	Uttar Pradesh	66	DEORIA	Akhilesh Pratap Singh
42	Uttar Pradesh	67	BANSGAON (SC)	Sadan Prasad
43	Uttar Pradesh	77	VARANASI	Ajay Rai
44	Uttarakhand	4	NAINITAL UDHAMSINGH NAGAR	Prakash Joshi
45	Uttarakhand	5	HARIDWAR	Virender Rawat
46	West Bengal	1	COOCH BEHAR (SC)	Piya Roy Chowdhury

The Congress has left the Nagaur parliamentary constituency in Rajasthan for the Hanuman Beniwal-led Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP), aiming to strengthen its position in the state. This move is particularly significant as the Congress seeks to broaden its support base, especially among the Jat community.

For Uttar Pradesh, where the Congress is in alliance with the Samajwadi Party (SP) and contesting 17 seats, candidates for nine seats have been announced. Apart from Ajay Rai in Varanasi, notable candidates include Danish Ali in Amroha, Imran Masood in Saharanpur, and Alok Mishra in Kanpur. However, speculation continues regarding whether Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will contest from Amethi and Raebareli, respectively.

The list includes significant nominations such as Kawasi Lakhma from Bastar (ST), Raman Bhalla from Jammu, and former Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat's son, Virender Rawat, from Haridwar. With this announcement, the Congress has declared a total of 183 candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections scheduled to begin on April 19.