Lok Sabha polls: BJP, Congress release list of candidates

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) releases another list of 36 candidates, mostly from Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Odisha, party also releases list for Andhra and Odisha assembly elections; Congress too releases a list of 35 candidates for Lok Sabha polls.

The BJP has released another list of 36 candidates for the Lok Sabha polls, which included 23 nominees for Andhra Pradesh where polling will be held in the first phase on April 11.

The list announced late on Friday night also contained names of six candidates for Maharashtra and five for Odisha. Also, one candidate each for Assam and Meghalaya were announced in the list.

BJP national spokesperson Sambit Patra will contest the general election from Puri parliamentary constituency in Odisha.

The Congress on Friday released the seventh list of its 35 candidates for the April-May Lok Sabha election. The party has shifted Uttar Pradesh state unit chief Raj Babbar from Moradabad to Fatehpur Sikri.

The party has nominated Imran Pratapgarhiya from Moradabad where Babbar’s candidature was announced earlier.

The party fielded former Union Minister Renuka Chowdhury from Khammam in Telangana.

The party also fielded Vikramaditya Singh, the son of former Union Minister Karan Singh, from Udhampur constituency in Jammu and Kashmir.

The Congress also released a list of 54 candidates for Odisha Assembly election.

The Bahujan Samaj Party has announced its first list of 11 candidates for the Lok Sabha elections, fielding JD(S) turncoat Kunwar Danish Ali from Amroha on Friday.

Ali, who was general secretary of the Janata Dal-Secular, quit the party and joined the Bahujan Samaj Party last week.

The BSP also declared Haji Fazulrahman its nominee from Saharanpur, Malook Nagar from Bijnore and Girish Chandra from Nagina.

Mayawati’s BSP is contesting 38 of the 80 Lok Sabha constituencies in Uttar Pradesh under the seat-sharing arrangement with Samajwadi Party and the Rashtriya Lok Dal.