Congress finalises 42 names for Lok Sabha polls

April 2nd, 2009 NEW DELHI - Come what may, one loser may win this time from Kerala's Wayanad constituency. For, the three leading candidates here are regular losers.

March 25th, 2009 BHUBANESWAR - The Orissa chief of the Youth Congress submitted his resignation Wednesday to protest the party leadership ignoring his demand that youths be given a chance to contest the upcoming Lok Sabha and assembly elections. Rohit Pujari said he had submitted his resignation to the party leadership.

March 22nd, 2009 BHUBANESWAR - Archana Nayak, the only woman MP in Orissa's ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD), Saturday joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Nayak, who has organised and led many women's movements in Orissa against dowry, violence against women and other such issues, said she quit the BJD as it would be unable to fight the Congress in the assembly and parliamentary polls after splitting with the BJP.

March 20th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Eminent writer and former UN official Shashi Tharoor was named by the Congress in its list of 16 candidates who would contest the Lok Sabha polls from Kerala. As anticipated earlier, Tharoor would be contesting on the Congress party ticket from Thiruvananphapuram.

March 19th, 2009 RANCHI - The Jharkand Mukti Morcha (JMM) and the Congress Thursday finalised a seat-sharing deal in Jharkhand with former chief minister Shibu Soren contesting both Lok Sabha polls and an assembly by-election. As per the agreement JMM will fight in five seats and Congress in seven seats.

March 16th, 2009 MUMBAI - Despite committing to contest Lok Sabha elections as a part of National Democratic Alliance, Shiv Sena leader Manohar Joshi on Sunday said that his party would prefer a Marathi for the post of Prime Minister. "Shiv Sena will prefer a Maharashtrian prime minister," Joshi said on the sidelines of a book release function here.

March 14th, 2009 JAMMU - The National Conference (NC) and the Congress have reached an agreement to share seats for by-elections in Jammu and Kashmir, necessitated after two former chief ministers Farooq Abdullah and Ghulam Nabi Azad vacated their assembly seats on being elected to the Rajya Sabha. The NC will contest two of the three assembly seats going to polls.

March 13th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The Congress Thursday named senior party leader N. Janardana Reddy as its candidate for a by-election to the Rajya Sabha from Andhra Pradesh.

March 10th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The Congress party Monday announced 12 candidates for the Lok Sabha elections from Gujarat, including the names of Union Minister of Textiles Shankarsinh Vaghela and two union ministers of state. Vaghela will contest from the Panchmahal constituency.

March 7th, 2009 KOLKATA - Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee Friday said her party was ready with the candidates' list for the coming Lok Sabha polls, but revealed her impatience at the Congress' delay in replying with seat adjustment details. 'I am waiting for the Congress' reply as they asked for 48 hours' time.

March 5th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The Congress Wednesday finalised its first list of 24 candidates for the Lok Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh. This includes seats the Samajwadi Party wants to contest.

March 5th, 2009 AHMEDABAD - The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) wants to field candidates from seven significant Lok Sabha seats in Gujarat even as negotiations are on with the Congress, which wants to fight on all the 26 seats in the state. The key Lok Sabha seats being demanded by Sharad Pawar's NCP are Rajkot, Dahod, Anand, Godhra, Bharuch, Ahmedabad (East) and Kutch.

March 5th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Thursday announced an alliance with the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) for the Lok Sabha elections in Assam. 'In the Lok Sabha elections, BJP would be the major partner, but in the assembly elections in the state the AGP would be the senior partner,' BJP president Rajnath Singh said here.

March 2nd, 2009 BANGALORE - The Congress in Karnataka Sunday finalised names of probable candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls and sent the list to Delhi for the party central leadership's approval. The list contains names of two or three candidates for each of the 28 seats.

January 18th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Former external affairs minister Yashwant Sinha is among the 18 candidates the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) declared Monday for the Lok Sabha elections. The names were finalised at the central election committee's meeting at the BJP headquarters here, party general secretary Ananth Kumar told reporters.