New Delhi:
What can be termed as a major blow for the Congress party ahead of the Maharashtra Assembly polls, six sitting MLAs are likely to join Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday. Here are the names of the six MLAs who are likely to switch sides on Monday:
Earlier, Congress released its first list of 51 candidates for upcoming Maharashtra Assembly Election. Former chief minister Ashok Chavan and Sushilkumar Shinde's daughter Praniti are among those whose names have been included in the list.
The former chief minister has been fielded from Bhokar Assembly seat, while Praniti has got a ticket from Solapur City Central constituency. Vijay Balasaheb Thorat, party Maharashtra chief, will contest the election Sangamner.
Former chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh's son Amit has been fielded from the Latur City seat, while senior party leader Nitin Raut, who heads the party's SC department, has been fielded from the Nagpur North (reserved) constituency.
The list of candidates was finalised after the party's Central Election Committee met under the chairmanship of party chief Sonia Gandhi and cleared the names.
The assembly elections in Maharashtra will be held on October 21 and results will be out on October 24.
Meanwhile, the Congress has announced the list of candidates for the Assembly bypolls in several states. The names have been announced for one parliamentary constituency in Bihar, and four legislative assemblies in Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. The announcement has been made just a day ahead of the last date of for the nomination for the bypolls in several Lok Sabha and Assembly constituencies.
"Congress interim President Sonia Gandhi has approved the proposals for the candidature of Ashok Kumar from Bihar's Samastipur reserved seat," Congress general secretary Mukul Wasnik said in a release. The by-elections 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.
