Congress announces second list of 43 candidates for Lok Sabha polls
The Congress released its second candidate list for the Lok Sabha polls on Tuesday.
Party General Secretary K C Venugopal, framing the contest as one between the downtrodden and crony capitalists, announced 43 candidates across states, including Assam, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Rajasthan.
Gaurav Gogoi will contest from Assam's Jorhat, Kamal Nath's son Nakul Nath will contest from Chhindwara.
The party's Central Election Committee (CEC) had convened on Monday to finalise candidates, shortly after releasing its first list for the polls.
Earlier, the Congress had unveiled 39 candidates for the upcoming elections, including Rahul Gandhi, who is slated to contest from Kerala's Wayanad constituency again. Bhupesh Baghel, the former Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh, has been nominated to contest from Rajnandgaon. Additionally, AICC General Secretary K C Venugopal will be contesting from Alappuzha in Kerala, while Shashi Tharoor has been renominated from Thiruvananthapuram.
Key members of the CEC include party president Mallikarjun Kharge, former presidents Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, Ambika Soni, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, T S Singhdeo, and Mohammad Jawaid, among others.
Some of the candidates named include:
Assam
Dubri: Raqibul Hussain
Barpeta: Dip Bayan
Kokrajhar: Gorjon Basumatary
Diphu: Joy Ram Ingle
Assam Jorhat: Gaurav Gogoi
Gujarat
Ahmedabad East: Rohan Gupta
Madhya Pradesh
Satna: Siddarth Kushwaha
Chhindwara: Nakul Nath
Rajasthan
Bikaner: Govind Ram Meghwal
Brijender ola: Jhunjhunu
Bharatpur: Sanjana Yadav
Jodhpur: Karan Singh
Jalore: Vaibhav Gehlot
Udaipur: Tarachand Meena
Uttarakhand
Garhwal: Ganesh Godiyal
Congress releases the second list of candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
— ANI (@ANI) March 12, 2024
Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi to contest from Jorhat, Assam. Nakul Nath to contest from Madhya Pradesh's Chhindwara. Rahul Kaswa to contest from Rajasthan's Churu and Vaibhav Gehlot to contest from… pic.twitter.com/oms2aliTqF
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Punjab: 16 private schools in Mohali receive bomb threat emails
Chandigarh (PTI): Sixteen private schools in Punjab's Mohali received bomb threat emails on Wednesday, triggering evacuation and prompting detailed anti-sabotage checks by police, an officer said.
No suspicious or explosive material was discovered at any of the locations after thorough inspections, the officer said.
School authorities sent messages to parents, declaring a holiday. Students on their way to school were sent back home, they said.
Manav Mangal School, Shivalik Public School, and Learning Paths School were among the schools which received the bomb threat emails.
The police said they swung into action after school authorities reported receiving the emails between 7.30 am and 8 am.
Security was mounted at the targeted schools, and intensive searches were carried out, they said.
"The police teams led by superintendents of police, deputy superintendents of police and other officials were rushed to the schools along with anti-sabotage teams and bomb disposal squads," Mohali Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Harmandeep Singh Hans told reporters.
Around 300 policemen were involved in the search operation, and all targeted schools were evacuated, he said.
The checking of all schools was completed within about two-and-a-half hours with the support of additional force and specialised teams from neighbouring districts of Fatehgarh Sahib, Rupnagar, and Chandigarh headquarters, Hans said.
"No explosive material was found at any of the locations," he added.
The search operations were supervised by SP City Dilpreet Singh, along with SPs Navneet Singh Mahal, Mohit Aggarwal, Sukhnaz Singh, Ramandeep Singh and Talwinder Singh Gill; DSP City-1 Prithvi Singh Chahal, DSP City-2 Harsimran Singh Bal and all station house officers.
Schools covered during the search included Amity School, Doon School, Learning Paths, Gurukul School, Vivek High School, Paragon School, YPS School, Lawrence School, and Gem Public School.
An FIR is being lodged, and the case has been referred to the Cyber Police Station, Phase-7, Mohali, to ascertain the origin of the threatening email and conduct an investigation, Hans said.
The latest scare comes close on the heels of similar threat incidents in Chandigarh, Amritsar, Jalandhar, Patiala, and schools in Haryana, all of which turned out to be hoaxes.
