24 women in Congress 4th list of 61 candidates for UP polls

The Congress has fielded a woman candidate, Reeta Maurya, from the Ayodhya constituency. It has also named a few candidates from Ayodhya and Rae Bareli districts, fielding Sudha Dwivedi from the Sareni seat in Rae Bareli. The party fielded Mohd Fateh Bahadur from the Gauriganj constituency in Amethi.

In Rae Bareli’s Harchandpur seat from where its sitting MLA Rakesh Singh had defected to the BJP, the party nominated another Thakur leader Surendra Vikram Singh.

With this list, the Congress has so far announced 316 candidates for the elections to the 403-member state Assembly. Of them, it has fielded 127 women candidates in keeping with AICC general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s pledge that the party will give poll tickets to 40 per cent women candidates. Barring few known faces, most of its women candidates declared by the Congress so far are electoral debutantes, who are newcomers to politics too.

The party had named 50 women contestants in its first list of 125 candidates, 16 women in its second list of 41 candidates, and 37 women nominees in its third list of 89 candidates.

Asked about the candidates, especially women nominees, in the Congress’s fourth list, a senior party leader said, “While they might not be big names, they are active on the ground and whoever visits their constituencies would get to know about them from now onwards, and that is what the Congress is aiming at.”

However, several UP leaders also could not recognise many candidates, but said they would also know them as they become active as party candidates and social activists in their respective belts.

The Congress has fielded Karishma Thakur from Govindnagar. She is currently Mahila Congress chief in Bundelkhand.