THE Congress on Monday fielded Prahlad Gunjal, a former BJP leader and close aide of former Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje, to take on outgoing Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla from Kota in Rajasthan. The candidature of Gunjal, who joined the Congress last week, was announced as the Congress released its sixth list of five candidates for the Lok Sabha polls. It announced four candidates for Rajasthan and one for Tamil Nadu. The Congress fielded Ramchandra Choudhary from Ajmer, Sudarshan Rawat from Rajsamand, Damodar Gurjar from Bhilwara, and C Robert Bruce from Tirunelveli (Tamil Nadu).

 

Gunjal joined the Congress in Jaipur last Thursday in the presence of former chief minister Ashok Gehlot and Rajasthan Congress chief Govind Singh Dotasra. Gunjal, a close aide of BJP leader Vasundhara Raje, was the MLA from Kota North twice earlier but had lost the last assembly polls. He is seen as a very vocal leader and with his arrival, the Congress is expected to benefit in the Hadoti region. With this, the party has declared a total of 190 candidates for the seven-phase Lok Sabha polls starting April 19.

 

Meanwhile, the Congress announced the candidature of Tharahai Cuthbert for the by-election for the Vilavancode assembly constituency in Tamil Nadu. The party also replaced its candidate in the Palin (ST) assembly constituency for the Arunachal Pradesh polls. Tarh Johny will be the Congress candidate in the constituency, replacing Takam Pario.

The seven-phase Lok Sabha polls begin on April 19 and the results will be announced on June 4.