Karti Chidambaram
The Congress on Sunday released its ninth list of 10 candidates for the Lok Sabha election, fielding former finance minister P Chidambaram's son, Karti Chidambaram, from Sivaganga in Tamil Nadu.
Karti Chidambaram is facing trial in corruption cases, including the INX media money-laundering case.
The Congress' list contains four candidates from Maharashtra, three from Bihar and one each in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Jammu and Kashmir.
Former Nationalist Congress Party leader Tariq Anwar was nominated by the party from the Katihar seat in Bihar, which he currently represents.
The party also fielded former party general secretary B K Hariprasad from the Bangalore South constituency in Karnataka.
Karti Chidambaram thanked the party leadership and DMK leader M K Stalin for renominating him from the Sivaganga seat.
"I thank the Congress leadership for reposing faith in me by nominating me to represent the Congress party in Sivaganga. I also thank DMK chief M K Stalin for leaving the seat for the Congress," Karti Chidambaram told reporters after the party renominated him from the seat.
"I firmly believe that the strength of the party and the alliance will help me win," he added.
Karti Chidambaram had unsuccessfully contested the Sivaganga seat in 2014 general election.
The constituency was earlier represented by his father, P Chidambaram.
The others whose names have been cleared by the party's central election committee include Mohammed Javed from Kishanganj and Uday Singh alias Pappu Singh from Purnia in Bihar and Haji Farooq Mir from Baramulla in Jammu and Kashmir.
Besides, the party has fielded Hidayat Patel from Akola, Kishor Uttamrao Gajbhiye from Ramtek (SC) and Subhash Wankhede from Hingoli in Maharashtra.
The Congress replaced its candidate from Chandrapur in Maharashtra and fielded Suresh Dhanorkar, in place of Vinayak Bangade.
With this, the party has fielded a total of 227 candidates so far.
Incidentally, a Delhi court has extended till March 25 the interim protection to Karti Chidambaram from his arrest as well as that of former Union minister P Chidambaram in the Aircel-Maxis and INX Media cases filed by the CBI and the ED.
