Raj Babbar, Shinde in Congress's second LS list

The Congress on Wednesday released its second list of Lok Sabha candidates, fielding its Uttar Pradesh unit chief Raj Babbar from Moradabad and former Union Ministers Sushil Kumar Shinde from Maharashtra's Solapur and Sriprakash Jaiswal from Kanpur.

The second list of 21 candidates, five from Maharashtra and 16 from Uttar Pradesh, includes two MPs who joined it after quitting the Bharatiya Janata Party - Nana Patole from Nagpur and Savitri Phule from Uttar Pradesh's Bahraich.

Patole, who had joined Congress in 2018, heads the All India Kisan Congress. Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari is the sitting MP from Nagpur and Patole will face him if he recontests from there.

Patole was elected to the Lok Sabha on a BJP ticket from Bhandara-Gondiya in 2014, defeating Nationalist Congress Party heavyweight Praful Patel.

Former Samajwadi Party MP Rakesh Sachan has been made Congress candidate from Uttar Pradesh's Fatehpur.

In Maharashtra, the party has fielded late actor and former Union Minister Sunil Dutt's daughter Priya Dutt from Mumbai North Central and Milind Deora from Mumbai South.

Nandev Dalluji Usendi is the party nominee from Gadchiroli-Chimur.

In Uttar Pradesh, the party has fielded Sanjay Singh from Sultanpur, Ratna Singh from Pratapgarh, Omwati Devi Jatav from Nagina, Zafar Ali Naqvi from Kheri, Kaisar Jahan from Sitapur, Manjari Rahi from Misrikh, Ramashankar Bhargava from Mohanlalganj, Parvez Khan from Sant Kabir Nagar, Kush Saurabh from Bansgaon, Pankaj Mohan Sonkar from Lalganj, Lalitesh Pati Tripathi from Mirzapur and Bhagwati Prasad Choudhary from Robertsganj.

The party's first list of candidates had 15 names - 11 from Uttar Pradesh and four from Gujarat.

Like the first list, the second list also includes some young well-known faces who have contested elections earlier as also from the old guard.

The party has taken lead over the ruling BJP which is yet to declare its first list of candidates.

The Congress, which is not part of Samajwadi Party-Bahujan Samaj Party-Rashtriya Lok Dal alliance in Uttar Pradesh, is fighting the elections on its own on all the 80 parliamentary seats though it has not ruled out possibility of alliance with smaller parties.

It has so far declared 27 candidates in the state.

--IANS

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