Congress picks Karti Chidambaram for Sivaganga seat in ninth nominees list

Businessman Karti Chidambaram, who is the son of former finance minister P Chidambaram, faces trial in corruption cases

The Congress on Sunday released its ninth list of 10 candidates for the Lok Sabha elections, fielding former finance minister P Chidambaram's son Karti from Sivaganga in Tamil Nadu.

Karti Chidambaram, a businessman, faces trial in corruption cases, including the INX Media money laundering case. A Delhi court has given till March 25 Karti and his father interim protection from arrest in the Aircel-Maxis scam cases filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Enforcement Directorate. 

The Congress list contains four candidates from Maharashtra, three from Bihar and one each in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Jammu and Kashmir.

Tariq Anwar, who was with the Nationalist Congress Party before, was nominated from Bihar’s Katihar, the constituency he represented in the last Lok Sabha.

The party also fielded former general secretary B K Hariprasad from the Bangalore South constituency in Karnataka.

The others whose names have been cleared by the party's central election committee include Mohammed Javed from Kishanganj and Uday Singh alias Pappu Singh from Purnia in Bihar and Haji Farooq Mir from Baramulla in Jammu and Kashmir.

Besides, the party has fielded Hidayat Patel from Akola, Kishor Uttamrao Gajbhiye from Ramtek-SC and Subhash Wankhede from Hingoli in Maharashtra.

The Congress replaced its candidate from Chandrapur in Maharashtra and fielded Suresh Dhanorkar, in place of Vinayak Bangade.

With this, the party has fielded a total of 227 candidates so far.