Ajay Rai to take on PM Modi in Varanasi

New Delhi, March 23

Former Madhya Pradesh CM Digvijaya Singh, Karti Chidambaram, Manickam Tagore and Danish Ali are among 46 candidates announced by the Congress in its fourth list of nominees released today.

Karti, Danish fielded

• Karti Chidambaram fielded from Tamil Nadu’s Sivaganga, Danish Ali from Amroha in UP; 185 candidates named so far.

Ajay Rai, UP unit president, has been fielded from Varanasi again where he would take on PM Narendra Modi, like he did in 2019. Newly inducted leader Lal Singh from J&K’s Udhampur will take on Union Minister Jitendra Singh. J&K unit’s working president and former minister Raman Bhalla has been fielded from Jammu.

The list contained one name each from Assam, the lone seat of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, one seat of Chhattisgarh, two seats of J&K, 11 seats of Madhya Pradesh, four seats of Maharashtra, both seats of Manipur, the lone seat of Mizoram, three seats of Rajasthan, seven seats of Tamil Nadu, nine seats of UP, two seats of Uttarakhand and one seat of West Bengal.

Digvijaya will contest from Rajgarh seat in MP. He has represented the seat twice and will fight against BJP’s two-term MP Rodmal Nagar.

Karti Chidambaram, son of senior leader P Chidambaram, has been repeated from Tamil Nadu’s Sivaganga from where he is the sitting MP. Manickam Tagore, sitting MP, has been repeated from Virudhunagar in Tamil Nadu.

Danish Ali has been fielded from Amroha in UP, the seat he won in 2019 as the BSP candidate. Kawasi Lakhma, five-time MLA and former Chhattisgarh Industry Minister, has been given the ticket from Bastar (ST) seat. Lakhma was questioned in connection with the Jhiram Ghati Naxal attack which wiped out the entire state Congress leadership. Nagaur in Rajasthan has been left for Hanuman Beniwal of RLP, the sitting MP.