Cong's 3rd list for LS polls: Kharge's son-in-law to contest from Gulbarga

Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury would contest from Baharampur in West Bengal

The Congress released its third list of Lok Sabha candidates on Thursday, pitting heavyweight Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury against former cricketer and now TMC man Yusuf Pathan from Baharampur seat.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge is not contesting from Karnataka’s Gulbarga seat. Instead, his son-in-law has been given a ticket by Congress from there. Kharge had represented Gulbarga seat in 2009 and 2014. But he lost it in 2019.

The opposition party has left Rajasthan’s Sikar seat for the Communist Party of India (Marxist).

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Of the 57 seats for which the list of candidates was announced, the Congress had won four seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. They were Puducherry, Malkajgiri, Baharampur and Maldaha Dakshin. The party has again fielded its sitting MPs from Puducherry, V Vaithilingam.

 

In 2019, A Revanth Reddy, now the Telangana chief minister, had won the Malkajgiri seat. The party has fielded Sunitha Mahender Reddy, who recently joined the Congress from the Bharat Rashtra Samithi.

For the Maldaha Dakshin seat, the Congress has replaced its three-term MP from that constituency, an ageing Abu Hasem Khan Choudhury with Isha Khan Choudhury.

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In Gulbarga (Kalaburagi), Kharge’s son-in-law Radhrakrishna Doddamani will contest. Of the 17 candidates that the Congress announced for Karnataka, five candidates are children of ministers in the Congress-ruled Karnataka government.

Minister Satish Jarkiholi’s daughter Priyanka Jarkiholi will contest from Chikodi, Ramalinga Reddy’s daughter Sowmya Reddy is the candidate from Bangalore South against BJP’s Tejasvi Surya.

Shivanand Patil’s daughter Samyukta S Patil is the Congress’ Bagalkot candidate, Laxmi Hebbalkar’s son Mrinal Ravindra Hebbalkar will contest from Belgaum and Eshwar Khandre’s son Sagar Khandre from Bidar.

कांग्रेस अध्यक्ष श्री @kharge की अध्यक्षता में आयोजित 'केंद्रीय चुनाव समिति' की बैठक में लोकसभा चुनाव, 2024 के लिए 57 लोकसभा सीटों पर कांग्रेस उम्मीदवारों के नाम की तीसरी लिस्ट जारी की गई। pic.twitter.com/7TMkx4faZ4

— Congress (@INCIndia) March 21, 2024

Mansoor Ali Khan, son of former Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman K Rahman Khan will contest from Bangalore Central and Prabha Mallikarjun, wife of minister SS Mallikarjun, will contest from Devangere.

MV Rajeev Gowda, the Vice-Chairman of the Karnataka State Policy and Planning Commission, will contest from Bangalore North against the BJP’s Shobha Karandlaje.

From Maharashtra’s Solapur, the Congress candidate will be three term legislator Praniti Shinde. Her father, former Union minister Sushilkumar Shinde represented the seat thrice, but lost in 2014 and 2019.

Of the seven candidates that the Congress announced from Maharashtra, three are legislators, including Praniti Shinde. Kasbapeth legislator Ravindra Dhangekar will contest from Pune and Daryapur MLA Balwant Wankhede from Amaravati.

Shahu Chhatrapati, from the Kolhapur royal family, will contest from the Kolhapur seat. The list consists of Congress candidates for seats across seven states and the Union Territory of Puducherry.

From West Bengal’s Baharampur, the Congress has again fielded its Lok Sabha leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury. He has represented the seat continuously since 1999. For the 2024 elections, Chowdhury faces former cricketer Yusuf Pathan, the Trinamool Congress candidate on the seat. 

In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the Congress had won Baharampur and Maldaha Dakshin seats of the 42 in West Bengal. 

In Telangana, the Congress announced five candidates, including three turncoats. Danam Nagender, a sitting Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) legislator, who recently joined the Congress, is the party’s candidate from Secunderabad.

G Ranjith Reddy, a BRS Lok Sabha MP, who crossed over to the Congress earlier this month, will contest from Chevella. In Malkajgiri, where Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy won in 2019, the party has fielded Sunitha Mahender Reddy.

Apart from Puducherry, the Congress announced two candidates for Arunachal, 11 for Gujarat, seven for Maharashtra, five for Rajasthan, five for Telangana and eight for West Bengal.