The Hindu : National : Congress plans to field 60 candidates in U.P.

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Congress plans to field 60 candidates in U.P.

Anita Joshua

Nominees for 20 more seats identified

Decision on Sultanpur still pending
Congress leaves decision on Lucknow to Sonia

NEW DELHI: The Congress is now planning to field candidates in at least 60 of the 80 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh with the screening committee on Wednesday identifying candidates for 20 more seats. Till now, the Congress has announced candidates for 39 seats.

A decision on Sultanpur — which the Congress had always planned to contest and was never a bone of contention with the Samajwadi Party when an alliance was attempted — is still pending.

The party has also decided to leave three seats — Firozabad, Mainpuri and Kannauj — for Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh and his son Akhilesh. While Mr. Mulayam Singh is contesting in Mainpuri, his son is in the fray in the other two constituencies.

As for Lucknow — where the Samajwadi Party has fielded film actor Sanjay Dutt — the Congress has left the final decision to president Sonia Gandhi. Similarly, the decision on Sultanpur has been kept pending on Ms. Gandhi’s instructions — the central election committee cleared the candidature of Sanjay Singh earlier this month.

It is learnt that the party is likely to field cricketer Mohammad Azharuddin in Moradabad and Dhanraj Patel — who joined the party last week — from Allahabad. Similarly, there are indications that the Mirzapur seat will go to Ramesh Dube — who represented the seat in the 14th Lok Sabha as a Bahujan Samaj Party member. He joined the Congress on Monday.

On the possibility of some more women making it to the third list, leaders in the know of the screening process maintained that there were very few women leaders in the State who could be fielded. “We have been out of power for nearly two decades. We are having difficulty getting men to join the party, then where will we find the women to field,” said a leader.

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