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Scindia, Kamal Nath, Mani Shankar in first Congress candidate list

Madhavrao Scindia, Motilal Vora, Roshan Lal Bhatia, Kamal Nath, P M Sayeed and Mani Shankar Aiyar were some of the prominent politicians figuring in the first list of 72 Congress candidates released in New Delhi last night.

Of the 72 candidates, 23 were members of the dissolved Lok Sabha while three are members of the Rajya Sabha. The list contains as many as 10 women.

The list named four candidates in Bihar, nine in Gujarat, three in Himachal Pradesh, two in Jammu & Kashmir, 33 in Madhya Pradesh, nine in Punjab, eight in Tamil Nadu, one each in the Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, Dadra & Nagar Haveli, and Daman & Diu.

Scindia has shifted from his home turf of Gwalior to the adjoining Guna constituency from where his mother, Vijayaraje Scindia, had won on a Bharatiya Janata Party ticket. She is not contesting the election this time on health grounds.

Former Madhya Pradesh chief minister and Uttar Pradesh governor Vora has been renominated from Rajnandgaon while former Union minister Bhatia is the party's candidate once again in Amritsar.

Rajya Sabha member and Congress Seva Dal chief Suresh Pachouri will contest the Bhopal seat.

Sayeed, the deputy speaker in the twelfth Lok Sabha, will contest the Lakshadweep seat for the ninth time in a row.

All-India Congress Committee secretary Aiyar returns to Mayiladuthurai in Tamil Nadu while former Union minister R Prabhu will be the party's candidate in The Nilgiris.

Tamil Nadu Pradesh Congress Committee president Tindivanam K Ramamurthy will contest Tindivanam, while N Dennis, who returned to the congress from the Tamil Maanila Congress recently, will seek a mandate from his own constituency of Nagercoil.

Former Union minister Sukhbhans Kaur Bhinder will seek to retake Gurdaspur, from where she was unseated last time by film star Vinod Khanna contesting on a BJP ticket.

Following is the list of 72 candidates released last night by the Congress:

Bihar: Shakeel Ahmad (Madhubani), Rajo Singh (Begusarai), Vijoy Singh Soy (Singbhum -- ST) and Indranath Bhagat (Lohardagga -- ST).

Gujarat: Babubhai Meghji Shah (Kutch), B K Gadhvi (Banaskantha), Nisha Chaudhary (Sabarkantha), Somji Damor (Dohad -- ST), Shanti B Patel (Godhra), Dinsha Zaverbhai Patel (Kaira), Ishwar Khodabhai Chavda (Anand), Naran Rathava (Chhota Udaipur -- ST) and Chhitubhai Gamit (Mandvi -- ST).

Himachal Pradesh: K D Sultanpuri (Simla -- ST), Sat Mahajan (Kangra) and Ram Lall Thakur (Hamirpur)

Jammu & Kashmir: Aga Syed Mehdi (Srinagar) and Thupstan Tasewing (Ladakh)

Madhya Pradesh: Satyadev Katare (Bhind), Madhavrao Scindia (Guna), Madhvi Choudhary (Sagar -- SC), Tilak Singh Lodhi (Damoh), Sunderlal Tiwari (Rewa), Tilakraj Singh (Sidhi -- ST), Ajit Jogi (Shahdol -- ST), Khel Sai Singh (Surguja -- ST), Pushpadevi Singh (Raiguja -- ST), Charan Das Mahant (Jangir), Rameshwar Kosarai (Bilaspur -- SC), Parasram Bharadwaj (Sarangarh -- SC), Somnath Sahu (Raipur), Chhabila Netam (Kanker -- ST), Mahendra Karma (Bastar -- ST), Pradeep Choubey (Durg), Motilal Vora (Rajnandgaon), Vishveshwar Bhagat (Balaghat), Devender Tekam (Mandla -- ST), Vimla Verma (Seomi), Kamal Nath (Chhindwara), Gufran-e-Azam (Betul), Rajkumar Patel (Hoshangabad), Suresh Pachouri (Bhopal), Jaswant Singh Raghuwansi (Vidisha), Laxman (Rajgarh), Radhakrishan Malviya (Shajapur -- SC), Tanvant Singh Keer (Khandwa), Tarachand Patel (Khargone), Gajendra Singh Rajukhedi (Dhar -- ST), Tulsi Silawat (Ujjain -- SC), Kanthilal Bhuria (Jhabua -- ST) and Rajendra Singh Gautam (Mandsaur).

Punjab: Sukhbans Kaur Bhinder (Gurdaspur), Roshan Lal Bhatia (Amritsar), Gurinder Singh Kairon (Tarn Taran), Santosh Chaudhary (Phillaur -- SC), Charanjit Singh Sani (Hoshiarpur), Shamsher Singh Dullo (Ropar -- SC), Preneet Kaur (Patiala), Gurcharan Singh Galib (Ludhiana), Jagmeet Singh Brar (Faridkot).

Tamil Nadu: Krishnaswamy (Wandiwash), T K Ramamurthy (Tindivanam), Sumathy (Chidambaram -- SC), R Prabhu (Nilgiris), L Adaikalraj (Tiruchirappalli 1), Mani Shankar Aiyar (Mayiladuthurai), Singaravadivelu (Pudukkottai) and N Dennis (Nagercoil).

Andaman & Nicobar Islands: Manoranjan Bhakta

Dadra & Nagar Haveli (ST): Gulaba Nanjibhai Dhodia (Patel)

Daman & Diu: Dahyabhai Vallabh Patel

Lakshadweep: P M Sayeed

UNI

EARLIER REPORT:
Congress stalwarts jittery, candidate list postponed

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