Congress names 16 more LS poll candidates, fields Vikramaditya Singh against Kangana Ranaut

The Congress on Saturday, 13 April announced a list of 16 more candidates for the Lok Sabha polls and fielded former Union minister Manish Tewari from the Chandigarh parliamentary constituency.

The party also pitted Himachal Pradesh Minister Vikramaditya Singh against BJP candidate and Bollywood actor Kangana Ranaut in the state's Mandi Lok Sabha seat.

Vikramaditya Singh is the son of the Congress' Himachal Pradesh unit chief Pratibha Singh who is also the sitting MP of Mandi.

The Congress' Chandigarh candidate Manish Tewari had his education in Chandigarh. He later moved to Delhi and joined NSUI after his father V N Tewari was killed by terrorists in the early 1980s.

He will take on BJP candidate Sanjay Tandon, the son of late BJP leader Balramji Das Tandon.

The Congress candidates were announced after a meeting of the party's Central Election Committee on Saturday evening.

The party fielded Vinod Sultanpuri, the son of veteran Congress leader K D Sultanpuri, from the Shimla-SC constituency. It also announced four candidates from Gujarat and nine from Odisha.

The Gujarat candidates include Ramji Thakore (Palvi) from the Mehesana, Himmatsinh Patel from Ahmedabad East, Pareshbhai Dhanani from Rajkot and Naishadh Desai from the Navasari seat.

In Odisha, the party fielded Mohan Hembram from the Keonjhar-ST seat, Srikant Kumar Jena from Balasore, Anant Prasad Sethi from Bhadrak-SC seat, Anchal Das from Jajpur-SC constituency, Sashmita Behera from Dhenkalan, Sidharth Swaroop Das from Kendrapara, Rabindra Kumar Sethy from Jagatsinghpur-SC, Sucharita Mohunty from Puri and Yasir Nawaz from Bhubaneshwar.

The Congress also announced five candidates for the bye-elections to five assembly segments in Gujarat.