New Delhi, India (March 13, 2014): As per information the Congress party has released second list of 71 candidates for Lok Sabha elections 2014. The Congress party has renamed former railway minister Pawan Bansal from Chandigarh brushing aside the “taint” argument. The list also includes film star Nagma in Meerut and Youth Congress chief Rajeev Satav from Hingoli.
It is notable that Pawan Bansal had to resign from the cabinet in the wake of the Rs. 10 crore cash-for-post bribery scam allegedly involving his nephew Vijay Singla and nine other people when the Congress leader had held the Railways portfolio.
The list includes renomination of several Union ministers including M. Veerappa Moily, Shashi Tharoor, V. Narayanasamy, K.C. Venugopal, K.V. Thomas and Mullapally Ramchandran.
Congress party spokesperson Raj Babbar, who had defeated UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav’s wife Dimple Yadav in a by-election from Firozabad was shifted to Ghaziabad, a constituency currently represented by BJP chief Rajnath Singh.
The party has named Tarun Patel from Domariaganj seat, which was represented by Jagdambika Pal who has left Congress. The lone party MP from Jharkhand Subodhkant Sahay again got a nomination despite opposition from a section of the leadership who doubted his winnability.
There was speculation that Babbar, Nagma or cricketer Mohammed Azharuddin, the MP from Moradabad in UP, could be fielded from the Jharkhand capital. Senior party leader Begum Noor Bano has been fielded from Moradabad, a Muslim-majority seat. In an earlier Lok Sabha, she had represented Rampur.
Party veteran from Karnataka Janardhan Pujari has been chosen for Dakshin Kannada seat while party spokesperson P.C. Chacko’s constituency has been changed from Thrissur to Chalakudy. K.P. Dhannapalan contests from Thrissur.
With the second list, Congress has so far declared candidates for 261 seats and four of the 194 candidates declared in the first list have been changed.