LS polls: Cong releases 4th list of candidates, fields Ajay Rai to take on Modi in Varanasi

The Congress on Saturday released its fourth list of 45 candidates for the Lok Sabha polls, fielding its Uttar Pradesh unit chief Ajay Rai from Varanasi to take on Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

While the Congress fielded its veteran leader Digvijaya Singh from Madhya Pradesh's Rajgarh, it nominated newly-inducted leader Lal Singh from Jammu and Kashmir's Udhampur to take on Union minister Jitendra Singh.

Vikas Thakare will take on Union minister Nitin Gadkari in Nagpur, according to the list.

In its fourth list, the party announced candidates for 12 seats of Madhya Pradesh, nine of Uttar Pradesh, seven of Tamil Nadu, four of Maharashtra, two each of Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, Manipur and Jammu and Kashmir, and one each of West Bengal, Assam, Andaman and Nicobar, Mizoram and Chhattisgarh.

The Congress has left the Nagaur parliamentary constituency in Rajasthan for the Hanuman Beniwal-led Rashtriya Loktantrik Party.

For Uttar Pradesh, where the party is in alliance with the Samajwadi Party and is contesting on 17 seats, the Congress announced candidates for nine seats. These include Rai from Varanasi, Danish Ali from Amroha, Imran Masood from Saharanpur and Alok Mishra from Kanpur.

Suspense over whether Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will contest from Amethi and Raebareli continued.

There is speculation that Rahul Gandhi may also contest from Amethi, besides his declared seat of Wayanad in Kerala, and Priyanka Gandhi from Raebareli, a seat which was previously held by Sonia Gandhi.

Both the seats in Uttar Pradesh are considered bastions of the Gandhi family and the local units of the Congress have demanded that the two scions of the Gandhi family should contest from there.

In Uttar Pradesh, the Congress has also fielded Ram Nath Sikarwar from Fatehpur Sikri, Pradeep Jain Aditya from Jhansi, Tanuj Punia from Barabanki (SC), Akhilesh Pratap Singh from Deoria and Sadan Prasad from Basgaon (SC).

In Tamil Nadu, the party has renominated Karti Chidambaram from Sivaganga, Manickam Tagore from Virudhunagar, S Jothimani from Karur and Vijay Vasanth from Kanniyakumari, among others.

In Madhya Pradesh, the party fielded Digvijaya Singh from Rajgarh, Kantilal Bhuria from Ratlam (ST), Akshay Bam from Indore and Arun Shrivastav from Bhopal among others.

With this, the Congress has now declared a total of 183 candidates for the seven-phase Lok Sabha polls beginning on April 19.