Adhir, the son-in-law of Kharge on the third list of 57 nominations submitted to Congress

The Congress has released its third list of candidates, which includes 57 names. Among them are Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha; D Radhakrishna, the son-in-law of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge; and Isha Khan Choudhury, the nephew of the late party leader ABA Ghani Khan Choudhury.

Two candidates from Arunachal Pradesh, eleven from Gujarat, seventeen from Karnataka, seven from Maharashtra, six from Rajasthan, five from Telangana, eight from West Bengal, and one from Puducherry, the only Lok Sabha seat, were on the list.

While Isha Khan received a ticket from Maldah Dakshin in West Bengal, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury was fielded from his stronghold of Berhampore in the Murshidabad district. The latter is the daughter of Maldah Dakshin Congress MP Abu Hasem Khan Choudhury. Due to ill health, the three-time MP Choudhury has been removed from office. Pradip Bhattacharya, a former Rajya Sabha member from Kolkata, Uttar Pradesh, has been fielded by the Congress.

In West Bengal, the party is anticipated to team up with Left parties and run for 12 of the 42 seats available in the state. Later on, the identities of the last four contenders will be revealed. The Congress has defected to the CPI(M) in the Rajasthani Sikar seat.

Among the seventeen candidates named today for Karnataka was Bangalore South’s Sowmya Reddy. She will face Tejashwi Surya of the BJP. Bangalore North’s Rajeev Gowda, a professor at IIM Bangalore and a former member of the Rajya Sabha, has been nominated.

Radhakrishna, Kharge’s son-in-law, has been issued a ticket from the Gulbarga (SC) seat. In the most recent general election in 2019, Kharge lost to Umesh Jadhav of the BJP, after having won this seat in 2009 and 2014.

In the race from Arunachal West is former chief minister Nabam Tuki. The party has nominated, among others, Sonal Patel of Gandhinagar, Prabhaben Taviyad of Dahod (ST), and Nilesh Kumbani of Surat in Gujarat.

A native of Kolhapur, Maharashtra, and the descendent of Chhatrapati Shivaji, Shahu Shahaji Chhatrapati has been nominated by the Congress. It has already released the names of seven candidates for Karnataka’s 28 Lok Sabha seats. Praniti Shinde, the daughter of former Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shindhe, has been granted a ticket by the party in Maharashtra. She intends to run for the seat in Solapur (SC).

Based on the most recent list, Congress has declared 139 candidates so far. It has already released two lists with the names of the 82 applicants.