LS polls: Congress releases 5th list; drops Sunil Sharma, fields Pratap Singh Khachariyawas from Jaipur

New Delhi [India], March 24 (ANI): The Congress party on Sunday released the fifth list of three candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, naming Pratap Singh Khachariyawas from Jaipur, replacing Sunil Sharma as announced earlier.

The BJP has fielded Manju Sharma for the Jaipur constituency.

Sunil Sharma was named in the party's third list of candidates, including five others from Rajasthan.

The Lok Sabha elections in Rajasthan are scheduled to be held in two phases on April 19 and April 26.

Apart from Pratap Singh, the latest list includes Pratibha Suresh Dhanorkar from Maharashtra's Chandrapur and Murari Lal Meena from Rajasthan's Dausa.

The Congress party released its fourth list of 46 candidates earlier on Saturday.

As per the 4th list, Congress leader and former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Digvijay Singh will be contesting from the Rajgarh Lok Sabha constituency against BJP candidate Rodmal Nagar.

Ajay Rai, the current president of the Congress party in Uttar Pradesh, is set to compete against Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the upcoming general elections in Varanasi. This marks the third time Rai will be challenging PM Modi. In the 2019 elections, PM Modi secured the Varanasi seat with a margin of 4.80 lakh votes, defeating Shalini Yadav of the Samajwadi Party. Rai, despite only garnering 1,52,548 votes and finishing in third place, remains undeterred in the upcoming electoral battle.

The list included candidates from seats in Assam, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Manipur, Mizoram, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and West Bengal.

The election for 543 Lok Sabha seats will be held in seven phases starting April 19. Nearly 97 crore voters are eligible to cast votes in the general election. The counting of votes will take place on June 4.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha election, the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) won 303 seats, while the Indian National Congress (INC) managed to get only 52 seats.

In the 2014 Lok Sabha election, the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) won 282 seats, while the Indian National Congress (INC) managed to get only 44 seats. (ANI)