Congress releases 9th list of 38 candidates, Digvijaya Singh, Ashok Chavan among heavyweights

The Congress on Saturday released its ninth list of 38 candidates for the April-May Lok Sabha elections. Former chief ministers Digvijaya Singh, Ashok Chavan, Harish Rawat are among heavyweights whose names have been announced by the grand old party in the list. The eighth list contains party candidates from the states of Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Manipur, and Maharashtra. 

Congress has fielded former chief ministers Harish Rawat from Nainital (Uttarakhand), Ashok Chavan from Nanded (Maharashtra) and Digvijaya Singh from Bhopal (MP). It has renominated Mallikarjun Kharge from Gulbarga (Karnataka) 

Congress party releases 8th list of 38 candidates in Karnataka, MP, Maharashtra, Manipur, Uttarakhand, UP for #LokSabhaElections2019 . Mallikarjun Kharge to contest from Gulbarga(Karnataka), Digvijaya Singh from Bhopal(MP), Harish Rawat from Nainital-Udhamsingh Nagar(Uttarakhand) pic.twitter.com/ieFJ0OcI43

— ANI (@ANI) March 23, 2019

The grand old party has also fielded BJP veteran BC Khanduri's son Manish from Garhwal (Uttarakhand). Manish had recently joined the Congress in the presence of Rahul Gandhi.  

Former union ministers M Veerappa Moily and K M Muniyappa have been nominated as party candidates from Chikkballapur and Kollar Lok Sabha seats.

Meenakshi Natarajan, a close aide of Rahul Gandhi, has been fielded from Mandaur constituency in Madhya Pradesh, while former party spokesperson Rashid Alvi will contest from Amroha in Uttar Pradesh.

The Congress has so far announced the names of its 218 candidates for the election to the 543-member Lok Sabha.

The Lok Sabha Elections 2019 will be held in seven phases, starting from April 11, while the results of all the phases will be declared on May 23. Announcing the seven-phase schedule for 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora also said 10 lakh polling stations would be set up this time as against about nine lakhs in 2014.

In the first phase, 91 constituencies will go for polls, 97 constituencies in the second phase, 115 constituencies in the third, 71 in the fourth phase, 51 in the fifth phase, 59 in the sixth phase and 59 in the seventh phase. In the first phase, the polling will be held in Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Punjab, Sikkim, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Andaman and Nicobar, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu, Lakshadweep, Delhi, Puducherry, Chandigarh, Uttarakhand.