The Hindu : Nafisa Ali, Sachin Pilot in Congress second list

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Mar 21, 2004

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Nafisa Ali, Sachin Pilot in Congress second list

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, MARCH. 20. The Congress tonight released its second list of 75 candidates for the Lok Sabha from 13 States/Union Territories, re-nominating nine members of the dissolved House and fielding a few new faces, including Sachin Pilot from Dausa in Rajasthan and film actor-turned-social worker, Nafisa Ali, from Calcutta South.

With this, the party has announced 149 names, altering the name of the former Orissa Chief Minister, Girdhar Gamang, from Koraput in place of his wife, Hema Gamang, who was a member of the 13th Lok Sabha. Ms. Gamang's candidature was announced in the first list but subsequently, her husband staked his claim for the seat and also had a meeting with the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, on the issue.

Among the nine re-nominated candidates from the last Lok Sabha was the former Rajasthan Pradesh Congress president, Girja Vyas (Udaipur), Sonaram Choudhary (Barmer), Ram Raghunath Choudhary (Nagaur). Amarsinh V. Patil (Belgaum), Dahyabahi V. Patel (Daman and Diu), Shavsi Makwana (Surendranagar) in Gujarat. Moni Kumar Subba (Tezpur), A.F. Ghulam Osmani (Barpeta) and Madhab Rajbangshi (Mangaldoi), all from Assam.

Mr. Sachin Pilot, son of former Union Minister, late Rajesh Pilot, would contest the constituency represented by his mother, Rama Pilot. Ms. Pilot who had won the seat in a by-election following the death of her husband had chosen to opt out in favour of her son.

Ms. Nafisa Ali, is among the 24 candidates declared by the party from West Bengal. The former Miss India and national swimmer would be fielded against the Union Minister, Mamata Banerjee.

In Karnataka, the party declared candidates for 10 seats. Prominent among them is the former Chief Minister, M. Veerappa Moily (Mangalore), former Chairman of the State Legislative Council, B.L. Shankar (Chickmagalur), Justice N.Y. Hanumanthappa (Chitradurga), former State Chief Secretary, B.S. Patil and Ayanoor Manjunath (Shimoga).Others in the list include Veerupakshappa (Koppal), a State Minister, S.S. Malliakarjun (Davangere), A. Siddaraju (Chamrajnagar-reserved), and Shyam Bheem Ghatge (Chikkodi-reserved).The former Union Minister, Sukhbans Kaur, has been fielded from Gurdaspur in Punjab, once again, to take on Union Minister and film star Vinod Khanna while the former Youth Congress chief, Satyajeet Gaekwad, would contest from Baroda in Gujarat. Bharat Solanki, son of the former Gujarat Chief Minister, Madhvasinh Solanki, would contest from Anand.

In Himachal Pradesh, the party has declared three of the four seats from the State. The candidates include, Dhani Ram Shandil, who represented Shimla reserved constituency in the dissolved Lok Sabha as a member of the Himachal Vikas Congress. He had recently joined the Congress. Two Ministers in the Himachal Pradesh Government, Ram Lal Thakur (Hamirpur) and Chander Kumar (Kangra) are in the fray.

In Chhattisgarh, the party has decided to field the former member of the party's Working Committee, Ganga Potai. Former chief of the Orissa Pradesh Congress Committee, Sarat Patnaik (Bolangir) and State Youth Congress chief, Ranjib Biswal (Jagatsinghpur) have been cleared.Today's list includes from Assam (6), Gujarat (8), Karnataka (10), Orissa (13 including one change of candidate), Rajasthan (4), West Bengal (24), Himachal Pradesh (3), Tripura (2), and one each in Chattisgarh, Manipur, Punjab and Daman & Diu).

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