Cong releases third list of 18 candidates for LS polls

The Congress late Friday night released its third list of 18 candidates for the Lok Sabha elections, fielding former Meghalaya chief minister Mukul Sangma from the Tura Parliamentary constituency.

Among the third list of candidate declared by the Congress after a meeting of the party's central election committee are five from Assam, two from Meghalaya, one from Uttar Pradesh, Sikkim and Nagaland each, besides eight from Telangana.

All India Mahila Congress chief Sushmita Dev has been fielded from the Silchar Lok Sabha seat and Gaurav Gogoi from the Kaliabor seat in Assam.

Both are sitting members of Parliament and have been fielded from their respective constituencies.

Former union ministers Vincent H Pala and Paban Singh Ghatowar have also been fielded from Shillong and Dibrugarh, Assam. Pala is also a sitting MP and has been fielded from the same seat.

Senior SC leader P L Punia's son Tanuj Punia has been nominated to contest from Barabanki (SC) seat in Uttar Pradesh.

The party has also nominated Swarup Das from Karimganj (SC) and Sushanta Borgohain from Jorhat (both Assam), K L Chisti from Nagaland and Bharat Basnett from Sikkim.

Among those fielded from Telangana include Ramesh Rathod (Dilabad), A Chandra Sekhar (Peddapalle), Ponnam Prabhakar (Karimnagar), K Madan Mohan Rao (Zahirabad), Gali Anil Kumar (Medak), A Revanth Reddy (Malkajgiri), Konda Vishweshwar Reddy (Chevella) and Porika Balram Naik from Mahabubabad.

Konda Vishweshwar Reddy is a sitting Lok Sabha MP from the same seat, but had contested as a TRS candidate. He had recently joined the Congress and is married to the daughter of the Apollo Hospital's founder.