Congress fields Y S Sharmila from Kadapa, Tariq Anwar from Katihar

The Congress party on Tuesday released a list of 17 candidates for the Lok Sabha elections, fielding state unit chief Y.S. Sharmila Reddy from the Kadapa seat in Andhra Pradesh. The latest list includes eight candidates from Odisha, five from Andhra Pradesh, three from Bihar, and one from West Bengal.
Of the nine seats Congress has received as a part of the seat-sharing pact with the grand alliance in Bihar, the grand old party announced candidates in Kishanganj, Katihar and Bhagalpur. Congress MP Mohammed Jawed has been fielded from this existing Kishanganj Lok Sabha seat, while veteran leader Tariq Anwar has been fielded from Katihar. Congress MLA Ajeet Sharma will contest from Bhagalpur Lok Sabha seat.
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Congress has decided to field former education minister M. M. Pallam Raju from Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh.
Former Lok Sabha member Sanjay Bhoi has been given Congress’s ticket to contest from Odisha’s Bargarh, a seat he represented from 2009 to 2014.
The only name announced in West Bengal is of Dr Munish Tamang from Darjeeling.
With this, the total number of candidates declared by the party so far is 228.
However, the suspense over the high-profile seats of Amethi and Raebareli continues.
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On Monday, the Congress party released its tenth list of candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. declaring the names of candidates from Maharashtra’s Akola seat and Telangana’s Warangal seat. The declaration of candidate from Akola has put an end to speculations of a possible alliance between Prakash Ambedkar’s Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) in Maharashtra.
Congress party’s Abhay Kashinath Patil will contest against VBA chief Prakash Ambedkar.
The election for 543 Lok Sabha seats will be held in seven phases starting April 19. Nearly 97 crore voters are eligible to cast votes in the general election.