Congress announces candidates for Bihar, Rajasthan, UP by-polls
The Congress on Sunday announced its candidates for the bypolls of one parliamentary constituency in Bihar, and four legislative assemblies in Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.
In a release, Congress General Secretary Mukul Wasnik said, "Congress interim President Sonia Gandhi has approved the proposals for the candidature of Ashok Kumar from Bihar's Samastipur reserved seat."
The bypolls for the Samastipur seat was necessitated after the death of Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) Member of Parliament (MP) Ram Chandra Paswan.
In Bihar, the Grand Alliance comprising the Rashtriya Janata Dal, Congress, Hindustani Awam Morcha and VIP party could manage to win only one out of 40 Lok Sabha seats in 2019 general elections.
The Congress has named Sayeeda Banu from Bihar's Kishanganj assembly constituency, Rita Chaudhary from Rajasthan's Mandawa, Harendra Mirdha from Khivsar and Mannu Dervi from Uttar Pradesh's Balha assembly seat.
The bypolls for the Kishanganj assembly seat was required as Mohammad Javed, a Congress MLA from Kishanganj got elected to the Lok Sabha while two seats in Rajasthan were vacated after Khivsar MLA Hanuman Beniwal and Mandawa's BJP MLA Narendra Kumar were elected from Nagaur and Jhujhunu Lok Sabha seats, respectively.
BJP's Balha MLA Akshaywar Lal Gaud had won from Bahraich Lok Sabha seat earlier this year.
Yesterday, the Congress had named four candidates each from Assam and Kerala, two from Himachal Pradesh and one each from Chhattisgarh and Puducherry.
The approved names from Assam are Keshab Prasad Rajak from Ratanbari (SC) constituency, Shamsul Hoque from Jania, Kartik Kurmi from Rangapara and Sushil Suri from Sonari.
From Kerala, contesting candidates are T J Vinod from Ernakulam, Shanimol Osman from Aroor, P Mohanrajan from Konni and K Mohan Kumar from Vattiyoorkavu constituency.
From Himachal Pradesh, the Congress is fielding Vijay Inder Karan and Gangu Ram Musafir from Dharamshala and Pachhad (SC) seats respectively.
From Chhattisgarh, Rajman Benzam is the Congress candidate from Chitrakot (ST) and from Puducherry, John Kumar will contest from Kamaraj Nagar constituency, the party said.
On September 21, the Election Commission announced the schedule for the bypolls on October 21, while the counting of votes will take place on October 24.
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