Lok Sabha Election 2024: Congress CEC clears UP, Jharkhand candidates, accommodates BJP, BSP turncoats

Congress insiders say candidates on six seats in UP, four in Jharkhand and on both the seats in Goa were cleared by the CEC after discussing their prospects. The names would be formally announced later.

New Delhi: The Congress Central Election Committee on Wednesday cleared over 15 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand taking into account the caste equations and accommodating the turncoats of the rival parties.

According to Congress insiders, candidates on six seats in UP, four in Jharkhand and on both the seats in Goa were cleared by the CEC after discussing their prospects. The names would be formally announced later. For instance, the party decided to field ex-BSP leader Nakul Dubey from UP’s Sitapur which has a significant population of Brahmins and Dalit voters.

Dubey, a well-known Brahmin face and a former state minister in the government of ex chief minister Mayawati, was expelled from the BSP and later joined the Congress ahead of the 2022 assembly polls at the instance of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra who was AICC in charge of the state. Sensing that the BSP has weakened in the state, the Congress has been trying to rope in Mayawati in the INDIA bloc, but she has remained adamant.

“Dubey’s induction was a good decision in 2022. He has been working among the people since then. The Brahmin voters are important and so are the others,” AICC secretary in charge of UP Pradeep Narwal told ETV Bharat. In Prayagraj, formerly known as Allahabad, the party is likely to field Ujjawal Raman Singh, the son of SP veteran and ex MP Rewati Raman Singh.

AICC in charge of UP Avinash Pande and state unit chief Ajay Rai recently met Rewati Raman Singh at a Lucknow hospital where the SP veteran is undergoing treatment to get his son Ujjawal on board. “Rewati Raman Singh is a founder member of the SP along with Mulayam Singh Yadav and Azam Khan. He has considerable influence in Prayagraj and has been MLA from Karchana assembly seat seven times,” AICC spokesperson Akhilesh Pratap Singh told this channel.

The Prayagraj seat has significant Thakur, Bania and Brahmin voters besides strong presence of Dalits and backward Patels. In Maharajganj the party has decided to field sitting MLA from Pharenda Virendra Chaudhary to benefit to put up a strong OBC candidate. In 2019, AICC social media head Supriya Shrinate had contested from the seat and wanted to fight again but is too tied up with managing the national polls.

In Ghaziabad, bordering New Delhi, the party has decided to repeat senior leader and advocate Dolly Sharma and benefit from her being a Brahmin face and strong defender of women’s rights. Among the two seats in western UP, Mathura and Bulandshahr, the party is likely to field Anil Chaudhary and Shivram Valmiki to benefit from the dominant OBC and Dalit voters.

In Jharkhand, where the Congress has an alliance with JMM, the party has decided to field former union minister Subodh Kant Sahai, the tallest leader from the state, from capital Ranchi. In Hazaribagh, the grand old party was planning to field ex BJP leader and ex-union minister Yashwant Sinha but later decided to nominate ex-BJP MLA JP Patel, who joined the Congress recently. In Khunti the party is likely to field Kalicharan Munda while Sukhdeo Bhagat could get Lohardaga which has a strong influence of naxals.