The Congress on Saturday announced its first list of 194 candidates for the Lok Sabha elections with Aadhaar chairman Nandan Nilekani, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, cricketer Mohammad Kaif and actor Ravi Kishan among the prominent names.
Others who figured in the first list were Sonia Gandhi, who will contest from Bareily, Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar from Sasaram, PL Punia from Barabanki, RPN Singh from Kushinagar, Priya Dutt from Mumbai North Central and Sushilkumar Shinde from Solapur.
The move came after the BJP released its second list of LS candidates earlier in the day. Nilekani will take on BJP MP Ananth Kumar from the Bangalore South constituency. Atal Behari Vajpayee's niece, Karuna Shukla, will contest from Bilaspur.
"The CEC has declared names of 194 LS seats, 35% of the candidates are youth, 15% are women," Congress spokesperson Madhusudan Mistry said.
Ranjeet Ranjan, Pappu Yadav's wife, will contest on Congress ticket from Supaul in Bihar.
The BJP earlier announced its second list of 52 candidates with former Karnataka chief ministers BS Yeddyurappa and DV Sadananda Gowda and Rajya Sabha MP Chandan Mitra among the prominent names.
With its second list on Saturday, the BJP has announced a total of 106 candidates for the Lok Sabha elections that will be held between April 7 and May 12. The third list of BJP's LS candidates would be announced after an election meeting on March 13.
