Congress comes out with first list of candidates for LS poll; Nandan Nilekani and Mohd Kaif are in fray

NEW DELHI: Former Test cricketer Mohd Kaif, Infosys co-founder and Unique Identification Authority of India chairman Nandan Nilekani, Bhojpuri film star Ravi Krishan and AB Vajpayee’s niece Karuna Shukla are among the list of 194 Congress candidates for the Lok Sabha polls, released on Saturday night.

The party has also pitted Amita Singh, wife of Congress leader Sanjay Singh, against BJP’s Varun Gandhi while Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi will contest from Rae Bareli and Amethi, their respective sitting seats.

The party’s first list has 35 per cent of them below 50 years of age and 15 per cent of them are women, according to Congress general secretary Madhusudan Mistry. While most of the sitting MPs have been re-nominated, the list also contains surprise names such as Oriya actors Aparajitha Mohanty, Bijoy Mohanty and Justice Hanumanthapa from Bellary.

While Nilekani will contest from Bangalore South, Kaif has been fielded from Phulpur. Prominent among the sitting MPs again fielded are Naveen Jindal, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Meira Kumar, Sushilkumar Shinde, Milind Deora, Kamal Nath and Priya Dutt. Other prominent names include BK Handique from Assam, Nikhil Kumar from Bihar, Girja Vyas from Rajasthan, Salman Khursheed, Bani Prasad Verma, Sriprakash Jaiswal from UP and Adhir Kumar Ranjan from West Bengal.

The Congress has chosen to depart from tradition and release a list days ahead of the last date for filing nomination, as the party wants to give enough time for its candidates to campaign. In Assam, the Congress list of candidates features chief minister Tarun Gogoi’s son Gaurav, who will contest from Koliabor.

Former Union industry minister Santosh Mohan Dev’s daughter Susmita Dev, an MLA, is contesting from Silchar. Congress has finalized candidates for nine Lok Sabha seats, of which six are sitting MPs.