The Congress on Sunday named former finance minister P Chidambaram’s son Karti from Sivaganga in Tamil Nadu, re-nominated former Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Tariq Anwar from Katihar in Bihar, and dropped sitting Lok Sabha member Rajeev Satav from Hingoli in Maharashtra.
In its ninth list for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the party also fielded Rajya Sabha member and former general secretary in-charge of Gujarat BK Hariprasad from Bangalore South.
Uday Singh alias Pappu Singh from Purnia (Bihar), Haji Farooq Mir from Baramulla in Jammu and Kashmir and Mohammad Javed from Kishanganj (Bihar) were among the 10 candidates announced by the Congress on Sunday. Karti unsuccessfully contested from Sivaganga in the Lok Sabha polls in 2014, when he finished in fourth place.
He is facing a money laundering probe in the INX Media case, which pertains to foreign investments received by INX in 2007-08 following a clearance by the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) when his father was the Union finance minister.
The NCP had staked claim to the Katihar seat, arguing that Anwar had won the 2014 Lok Sabha elections on its ticket. However, the grand alliance decided to allocate the seat to the Congress after Anwar refused to shift his Lok Sabha seat.
{{/usCountry}}The NCP had staked claim to the Katihar seat, arguing that Anwar had won the 2014 Lok Sabha elections on its ticket. However, the grand alliance decided to allocate the seat to the Congress after Anwar refused to shift his Lok Sabha seat.
{{/usCountry}}Anwar quit the NCP in October 2018 and returned to the Congress more than 19 years after being expelled from the party for opposing party president Sonia Gandhi ostensibly on the grounds of her foreign origin.
Satav is said to have opted out of the poll race because he is the party’s incharge in Gujarat and will oversee election preparations, said a leader on condition of anonymity. In all, with the latest list, the Congress has named 227 candidates so far.