As Congress selects nine out of seventeen candidates, Ajay Rai is anticipated to run from Varanasi

According to reports, the Congress has finalized nine of the 17 candidates for the Lok Sabha election, including Ajay Rai, the head of the Uttar Pradesh Congress, who is expected to run from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home district of Varanasi once again.

The party has not yet chosen its candidates for the important seats of Amethi and Rae Bareli, which will probably see a new face after Sonia Gandhi decided to join the Rajya Sabha.

Rahul Gandhi or Priyanka Gandhi are said to be running for the two seats, and the Congress parliamentary board meeting will be where the ultimate choice is made.

The move coincides with the Samajwadi Party and the Congress officially announcing a seat-sharing agreement for the Uttar Pradesh Lok Sabha polls, a significant victory for the opposition INDIA group. The Samajwadi Party and other partners of the INDIA group will battle for the remaining 63 seats, leaving Congress to fight for 17 of the 80 seats.

It seems probable that Imran Masood, who was kicked out of the BSP and back into the Congress, will run from Saharanpur once again. Even though he lost both times, Masood, a well-known Muslim politician, conducted a fierce campaign against the BJP as the Congress candidate from Saharanpur in the Lok Sabha elections of 2014 and 2019.

According to sources, former MLAs Tanuj Punia from Barabanki, Pradeep Jain from Jhansi, Dolly Sharma from Ghaziabad, MLA Virendra Chaudhary from Maharajganj, and Ramnath Sikarwar from Fatehpur Sikri might all be nominated. Rakesh Rathore resigned from the BJP and joined the Congress. From Kanpur Nagar, Alok Mishra, Ajay Kapoor, Vikas Awasthi, and Karishma are being considered.

Akhilesh Pratap Singh or Ajay Lallu from Bansgaon, Kamal Kishore or Anoop Prasad from Bulandshahr, Pandit Rajkumar Rawat from Deoria, and former MLC Pradeep Mathur from Mathura might all be nominated.