Congress has maintained suspense over its candidates from its bastions Rae Bareli and Amethi while announcing four more candidates for the Lok Sabha elections from Uttar Pradesh. The party had earlier announced the names of nine candidates from UP, including the name of UP Congress Committee president Ajay Rai, who will challenge Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Varanasi. The eighth list announced by the Congress late Wednesday night, included the names of four more candidates from Uttar Pradesh. The Congress has given its ticket to Dolly Sharma from Ghaziabad, Nakul Dubey from Sitapur, Shivram Valmiki from Bulandshahr (SC) and Virendra Chaudhary from Maharajganj. Interestingly, party spokesperson and in-charge of social media, Supriya Shrinate, was also trying to get a ticket from Maharajganj parliamentary constituency from where she had contested the Lok Sabha election in 2019.  Sources said that her name was dropped following controversy over her statement on film actress Kangana Ranaut, who is contesting on Bharatiya Janata Party ticket from Mandi parliamentary constituency in Himachal Pradesh. Shrinate had removed the controversial statement soon after posting it but still the BJP took up the issue and the Election Commission of India even served notice to the Congress leader on the issue. The eighth list of candidates of the Congress does not mention Amethi and Rae Bareli Lok Sabha constituencies. When asked about these two Lok Sabha seats of Uttar Pradesh, UP Congress chief Ajay Rai said there was no discussion on these parliamentary constituencies. We had conveyed our views on these seats (Amethi and Rae Bareli) the last time. It is up to the leadership now to take a decision, Rai claimed before media persons. Both these Lok Sabha constituencies are considered bastions of the Gandhi family and the local units of the Congress have demanded that the two scions of the family – Rahul Gandhi and his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra – should contest from there. It may be mentioned that in the list announced earlier by Congress, the party gave ticket to Ajay Rai from Varanasi, Imran Masood from Saharanpur, Danish Ali from Amroha, Ram Nath Sikarwar from Fatehpur Sikri, Alok Mishra from Kanpur, Pradeep Jain Aditya from Jhansi, Tanuj Punia from Barabanki (SC), Akhilesh Pratap Singh from Deoria and Sadan Prasad from Bansgaon (SC). The Congress has reached an agreement on seats with its INDIA bloc partner Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh and is contesting 17 Lok Sabha seats in UP.

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