Sushilkumar Shinde, Priya Dutt tipped for Lok Sabha list

New Delhi: Candidature of former home minister Sushilkumar Shinde, Sanjay Nirupam and Priya Dutt were among the 12 names which were cleared by the Congress screening committee for Maharashtra on Friday for the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls.

Party sources said that the names of candidates shortlisted for 12 seats in the state will be formally announced after the meeting of the Central Election Committee (CEC), which is scheduled for March 11.

Out of the total 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharas-htra, the Congress will contest 26 while its ally Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) will fight on 22 seats.

Party sources said that Mr Shinde’s candidature has been cleared for Solapur seat, from where the veteran Congress leader has won on many occasions.

Mr Nirupam’s name has been shortlisted for the Mumbai North-West Lok Sabha seat which was won by the late Congress leader Gurudas Kamat in 2009, they added.

Priya Dutt, daughter of late film actor and Congress MP Sunil Dutt, too has been shortlisted. However, it is yet to be decided as to from where she will contest, sources said.

Interestingly, she had won the Mumbai North-West seat in the 2005 by-election which was necessitated after the demise of her father. The late actor had won from this seat on five occasions, the last being in 2004.

The Congress will also be contesting the Pune seat and has cleared the name of Sanjay Kakade, who is currently an independent Rajya Sabha member backed by the BJP. Mr Kakade has not formally joined the Congress but sources did not rule out his doing so in the coming days.

Former junior minister for coal in UPA-II Pratik Patil’s name was also cleared for Sangli Lok Sabh seat during the meeting, sources said. Discussions on clearing candidates for the remaining 14 seats in the state were still going on.

The screening committee’s meeting was attended by All India Congress Committee (AICC) in-charge of the organisation K.C. Venugopal, Maharashtra state in-charge Mallikarjun Kharge, state Congress head Ashok Chavan, and former Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan, among others.