LS Polls: Ajay Rai To Face PM Modi In Varanasi Again. Digvijaya Singh, Danish Ali Feature In Fourth Congress List
The Congress released the fourth list of 46 candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha election naming UP Congress President Ajay Rai, Digvijay Singh, Imran Masood, and Danish Ali among other names.
Lok Sabha Elections: The Congress party unveiled its fourth list of 45 candidates for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections, revealing its strategic moves for key constituencies across the country. In a notable move, the party has nominated its Uttar Pradesh unit chief Ajay Rai to contest from Varanasi, challenging Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his own constituency.
Rai has been fielded against Prime Minister Narendra Modi from Varanasi for the third straight time. He conceded defeat at the hands of PM Modi on the previous two occasions, the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
Veteran leader Digvijaya Singh has been fielded from Madhya Pradesh's Rajgarh, while the newly-inducted Lal Singh will contest from Jammu and Kashmir's Udhampur against Union Minister Jitendra Singh. Notably, MLA Vikas Thakare has been tasked with taking on Union Minister Nitin Gadkari in Maharashtra's Nagpur.
The party's fourth list covers candidates for 12 seats in Madhya Pradesh, nine in Uttar Pradesh, seven in Tamil Nadu, four in Maharashtra, and two each in Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, Manipur, and Jammu and Kashmir. Additionally, one candidate each has been named for West Bengal, Assam, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Mizoram, and Chhattisgarh.
| SI. No. | States | Constituencies | Candidates | |
| 1 | Assam | 12 | LAKHIMPUR | Uday Shankar Hazarika |
| 2 | Andaman & Nicobar Islands | 1 | Andaman & Nicobar Islands | Kuldeep Rai Sharma |
| 3 | Chhattisgarh | 10 | BASTAR (ST) | Kawasi Lakhma |
| 4 | Jammu & Kashmir | 4 | UDHAMPUR | Ch. Lal Singh |
| 5 | Jammu & Kashmir | 5 | JAMMU | Raman Bhalla |
| 6 | Madhya Pradesh | 5 | SAGAR | Guddu Raja Bundela |
| 7 | Madhya Pradesh | 10 | REWA | Nilam Mishra |
| 8 | Madhya Pradesh | 12 | SHAHDOL (ST) | Phundelal Singh Marko |
| 9 | Madhya Pradesh | 13 | JABALPUR | Dinesh Yadav |
| 10 | Madhya Prad&sh | 15 | BALAGHAT | Samrat Saraswat |
| 11 | Madhya Pradesh | 17 | HOSHANGABAD | Sanjay Sharma |
| 12 | Madhya Pradesh | 19 | BHOPAL | Arun Shrivastav |
| 13 | Madhya Pradesh | 20 | RAJGARH | Digvijaya Singh |
| 14 | Madhya Pradesh | 22 | UJJAIN (SC) | Mahesh Parmar |
| 15 | Madhya Pradesh | 23 | MANDSAUR | Dilip Singh Gurjar |
| 16 | Madhya Pradesh | 24 | RATLAM (ST) | Kantilal Bhuria |
| 17 | Madhya Pradesh | 26 | INDORE | Akshay Bam |
| 18 | Maharashtra | 9 | RAMTEK (SC) | Rashmi Shyamkumar Barve |
| 19 | Maharashtra | 10 | NAGPUR | Vikas Thakare |
| 20 | Maharashtra | 11 | BHANDARA GONDIYA | Prashant Yadavrao Padole |
| 21 | Maharashtra | 12 | GADCHIROLI-CHIMUR (ST) | Namdev Dasaram Kirsan |
| 22 | Manipur | 1 | INNER MANIPUR | Angomcha Bimol Akoijam |
| 23 | Manipur | 2 | OUTER MANIPUR (ST) | Alfred Kanngam S.Arthur |
| 24 | Mizoram | 1 | MIZORAM (ST) | Lalbiakzama |
| 25 | Rajasthan | 6 | JAIPUR RURAL | Anil Chopra |
| 26 | Rajasthan | 10 | KARAULI - DHOLPUR ·SC | Bhajan Lal Jatav |
| 27 | Rajasthan | 14 | NAGAUR | Left for RLP |
| 28 | Tamil Nadu | 1 | TIRUVALLUR (SC) | Sasikanth Senthil |
| 29 | Tamil Nadu | 9 | KRISHNAGIRI | K.Gopinath |
| 30 | Tamil Nadu | 23 | KARUR | S. Jothimani |
| 31 | Tamil Nadu | 26 | CUDDALORE | M.K. Vishnu Prasad |
| 32 | Tamil Nadu | 31 | SIVAGANGA | A. Karti P Chidambaram |
| 33 | Tamil Nadu | 34 | VIRUDHUNAGAR | B. Manickam Tagore |
| 34 | Tamil Nadu | 39 | KANNIYAKUMARI | Vijay Vasanth |
| 35 | Uttar Pradesh | 1 | SAHARANPUR | Imran Masood |
| 36 | Uttar Pradesh | 9 | AMROHA | Danish Ali |
| 37 | Uttar Pradesh | 19 | FATEHPUR SIKRI | Ram Nath Sikarwar |
| 38 | Uttar Pradesh | 43 | KANPUR | Alok Mishra |
| 39 | Uttar Pradesh | 46 | JHANSI | Pradeep Jain Aditya |
| 40 | Uttar Pradesh | 53 | BARABANKI (SC) | Tanuj Punia |
| 41 | Uttar Pradesh | 66 | DEORIA | Akhilesh Pratap Singh |
| 42 | Uttar Pradesh | 67 | BANSGAON (SC) | Sadan Prasad |
| 43 | Uttar Pradesh | 77 | VARANASI | Ajay Rai |
| 44 | Uttarakhand | 4 | NAINITAL UDHAMSINGH NAGAR |
Prakash Joshi |
| 45 | Uttarakhand | 5 | HARIDWAR | Virender Rawat |
| 46 | West Bengal | 1 | COOCH BEHAR (SC) | Piya Roy Chowdhury |
The Congress has left the Nagaur parliamentary constituency in Rajasthan for the Hanuman Beniwal-led Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP), aiming to strengthen its position in the state. This move is particularly significant as the Congress seeks to broaden its support base, especially among the Jat community.
For Uttar Pradesh, where the Congress is in alliance with the Samajwadi Party (SP) and contesting 17 seats, candidates for nine seats have been announced. Apart from Ajay Rai in Varanasi, notable candidates include Danish Ali in Amroha, Imran Masood in Saharanpur, and Alok Mishra in Kanpur. However, speculation continues regarding whether Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will contest from Amethi and Raebareli, respectively.
The list includes significant nominations such as Kawasi Lakhma from Bastar (ST), Raman Bhalla from Jammu, and former Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat's son, Virender Rawat, from Haridwar. With this announcement, the Congress has declared a total of 183 candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections scheduled to begin on April 19.
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