Congress releases fourth list for LS polls

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The Congress on Saturday night released its fourth list of party candidates for the Lok Sabha elections, fielding Shashi Tharoor from Thiruvananthapuram, former Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Nabam Tuki from Arunachal West constituency and former MP Harender Malik from Kairana.

The list of 27 candidates includes two from Arunachal Pradesh, five from Chhattisgarh, 12 from Kerala, seven from Uttar Pradesh and one from Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

From Arunachal East, the party has fielded James Lowangcha Wanglet.

In Chhattisgarh, the party has fielded Khel Sai Singh from Surguja, Laljeet Singh Rathia from Raigarh, Ravi Bhardwaj from Janjgir-Champa, Deepak Baij from Bastar and Biresh Thakur from Kanker.

In Kerala, the Congress which is contesting 16 of the state's 20 Lok Sabha seats, announced 12 of its candidates. While most of its eight sitting MPs have been re-nominated, a shock exclusion was of former Union Minister K.V. Thomas.

Thomas, the sitting member from Ernakulam, has been replaced by young legislator Hibi Eden.

The polling in the state will be held on April 23, in the third of the seven phased Lok Sabha elections. The other four seats will be contested by other members of the Congress-led United Democratic Front -- the Indian Union Muslim League 2, and the Revolutionary Socialist Party and the Kerala Congress-Mani one each.

The list includes sitting MPs Shashi Tharoor (Thiruvananthapuram), Kodikunnil Suresh (Mavelikera) M.K. Raghavan (Kozhikode) and Anto Antony (Pathanamthitta).

The other candidates are Raj Mohan Unnithan (Kasargode), K. Sudhakaran (Kannur), V.K. Sreekantan (Palakkad), Remya Haridas (Alathur), Benny Behanan (Chalakudy), T.N. Pratapan (Thrissur), and Dean Kuriakose (Idukki).

In Uttar Pradesh, the party has fielded Arvind Singh Chauhan from Gautam Budha Nagar, Indira Bhatti from Bijnor, Om Prakash Sharma from Meerut, Brijender Singh from Aligarh, Pritam Lodhi from Hamirpur and Bal Krishna Chauhan from Ghosi.

Kuldeep Rai Sharma has been fielded from Andaman and Nicobar Islands.