New Delhi: The Congress on Saturday night released its eighth list of 38 candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls with its leader in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge being renominated from Gulbarga in Karnataka and former Maharashtra chief minister Ashok Chavan being fielded from Nanded. The eighth list released, contains party candidates from the states of Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Manipur and Maharashtra.

On Saturday, Haryanvi dancer Sapna Chudhary also joined Congress although whether she will contest elections or not is still suspense. While speculations were going on about Sapna’s candidature from Mathura, however, now Mahesh Pathak has been given ticket from the seat.

Former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Digvijay Singh will be contesting from Bhopal. Former Uttarakhand chief minister Harish Rawat is fielded from Nainital constituency.

Former BJP chief minister from Uttarakhand B C Khanduri's son Manish khanduri has been fielded from Garhwal Lok Sabha seat. Manish had recently joined the Congress in the presence of Rahul Gandhi.

Former union ministers M Veerappa Moily and K M Muniyappa have been nominated as party candidates from Chikkballapur and Kollar Lok Sabha seats.

Meenakshi Natarajan, a close aide of Rahul Gandhi, has been fielded from Mandaur constituency in Madhya Pradesh, while former party spokesperson Rashid Alvi will contest from Amroha in Uttar Pradesh.

The Congress has so far announced the names of its 218 candidates for the election to the 543-member Lok Sabha which will held in seven phases beginning on 11 April and ending on 19 May. The counting will take place on 23 May.

Uttarakhand:

Apart from Harish Rawat from Nainital,  Congress named veteran BJP leader B C Khanduri's son, Manish Khanduri, from Garhwal in its list of candidates for all the five Lok Sabha seats in Uttarakhand.

It has fielded state Congress president Pritam Singh from Tehri Garhwal, Pradeep Tamta from Almora (SC) and Ambrish Kumar from Haridwar.

It will be a clash of heavyweights in Nainital with Harish Rawat taking on state BJP president Ajay Bhatt and Pritam Singh battling it out with sitting MP Mala Rajya Laxmi Shah in Tehri.

Bhatt, on the other hand, is not only the state BJP president, but a former MLA from Ranikhet who was the Leader of Opposition in the assembly when Harish Rawat was chief minister. Bhatt had also lost his seat in the last assembly polls.

Tehri will also witness a tough battle for Pritam Singh who will be up against Mala Rajya Laxmi Shah. Singh is credited with winning the Chakrata seat despite his party faring poorly in the last assembly election.

Arunachal Pradesh:

The Congress on Saturday announced 53 candidates for the Arunachal Pradesh Assembly election and 32 nominees for state polls in Sikkim. The Congress has fielded former Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Nabam Tuki from the Sagalee (ST) Assembly seat. Significantly, the Congress has also fielded Tuki from the Arunachal West Lok Sabha seat.

Arunachal Pradesh will have simultaneous assembly and Lok Sabha polls. Polls for 60 assembly seats and two parliamentary seats will be held on April 11.

(Inputs from agencies)