Jogi, Pilot in Congress list; no ticket for Kalmadi

The Congress Tuesday declared its third list of party candidates fielding former Chhattisgarh chief minister Ajit Jogi from Mahasamund and giving its ticket from Pune to Vishwajeet Kadam in place of sitting MP Suresh Kalmadi.

The party has fielded cricketer-turned-politician Mohammed Azharuddin from Tonk-Sawai Madhopur in Rajasthan.

The list of 58 names declared Tuesday included its Rajasthan unit chief Sachin Pilot (Ajmer) and its Haryana unit chief Ashok Tanwar (Sirsa).

There was speculation that both Pilot and Tanwar were seeking a change of seat but both will be contesting from the seats they won in 2009.

Other prominent names in the list from Rajasthan include union minister Chandresh Kumari (Jodhpur) and Jyoti Mirdha (Nagaur).

The list includes names of several sitting MPs including five from Delhi.

There was intense speculation if Kalmadi, who had won Lok Sabha elections thrice, would be given Congress ticket from Pune.

Kalmadi, a former chief of the Commonwealth Games Organising Committee, is an accused in a corruption case related to the 2010 sporting event.

He was arrested for his alleged role in awarding a contract for installing the Timing-Scoring-Result system to Swiss Times Omega at an exorbitant cost of Rs.141 crore, allegedly causing a loss of over Rs.95 crore to the public exchequer. He was later released on bail.