LS polls: In 2nd list, Cong names seven candidates in Gujarat, including two legislators, one ex-MLA

She is pitted against Bharatiya Janata Partys Rekhaben Chaudhary, whose name was declared in the ruling partys first list of candidates.Thakor won the Vav seat twice - in 2017 and 2022, having defeated BJP heavyweight Shankar Chaudhary during the 2017 election.The Congress also fielded its MLA Anant Patel from Valsad seat, which is reserved for the Scheduled Tribe ST community.

Two sitting MLAs and a former legislator are among the seven candidates in Gujarat whose names were declared by the Congress for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections in its second list of nominees released on Tuesday.

Two-term Congress legislator from Vav constituency, Geniben Thakor, has been given the ticket by the party to contest from the Banaskantha Lok Sabha seat in north Gujarat. She is pitted against Bharatiya Janata Party's Rekhaben Chaudhary, whose name was declared in the ruling party's first list of candidates.

Thakor won the Vav seat twice - in 2017 and 2022, having defeated BJP heavyweight Shankar Chaudhary during the 2017 election.

The Congress also fielded its MLA Anant Patel from Valsad seat, which is reserved for the Scheduled Tribe (ST) community. A tribal leader, Patel is a sitting MLA from Vansda seat.

The party also gave a second chance to its former MLA Lalit Vasoya to contest from Porbandar Lok Sabha seat.

Vasoya had unsuccessfully contested the Porbandar parliamentary seat in 2019 as the then sitting Congress MLA from Dhoraji seat. He was defeated in the 2022 assembly election from the Dhoraji seat.

He will contest against Union minister Mansukh Mandaviya, who has been fielded by the BJP from the Porbandar seat.

From the Ahmedabad (East) Parliamentary seat, the party has fielded its national spokesperson Rohan Gupta.

A vocal face on national news channels, Gupta had also served as the chairperson of the social media department of the party in the past.

The grand old party fielded new faces from the Kutch (Scheduled Caste-reserved seat), Ahmedabad (West) (SC) and Bardoli (ST) seats. It also announced the names of Nitish Lalan, Bharat Makwana and Siddharth Chaudhary for these seats respectively.

Lalan is pitted against sitting BJP MP Vinod Chavda, Bharat Makwana against Dinesh Makwana, and Chaudhary against Prabhu Vasava.

The BJP has not yet declared the names of candidates for Ahmedabad (East) and Valsad seats.

Some of the candidates, while talking to media, thanked the Congress's national and state leadership, and said they were confident of giving a tough fight against their BJP counterparts and winning the elections. Notably, the BJP had won all 26 Lok Sabha seats from Gujarat in 2014 and 2019 elections.

As part of the INDIA bloc arrangement, the Congress has given Bharuch and Bhavnagar to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), while it will fight from the remaining 24 seats.