Congress announces 24 UP candidates

Pitted against SP in 10 constituencies.

Seat adjustment with the Samajwadi Party (SP) in Uttar Pradesh yet to be finalised for the coming Lok Sabha elections, the Congress today released its first list of candidates in the state. The party is pitted against SP candidates in at least 10 constituencies .

The Congress will clash against the SP in seats like Farukkhabad, Muzaffarnagar, Rampur, Pratapgarh and Salempur. While the SP already has Jaya Prada as its sitting MP from Rampur, the Congress today fielded Begum Noor Bano in that seat.

The SP has so far declared candidates for 62 seats. Uttar Pradesh has total 80 Lok Sabha seats.

The first list of the Congress predictably mentioned that party chief Sonia Gandhi and AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi would contest from Rae Bareli and Amethi, respectively.

The party has also announced the candidature of Salman Khurshid from the Farukkhabad seat, where the SP has already declared its candidate. Former SP leader and the sitting MP from Agra — Raj Babbar — has been given the Congress ticket to contest from Fatehpur Sikri.

The Congress has also given ticket to Annu Tandon, a former top executive of Reliance Industries, to contest from Unnao. Tandon had served as the managing director of MoTech Software Pvt Ltd, a company promoted by Mukesh Ambani.