The Congress on Wednesday announced four more names from Uttar Pradesh in its latest list of 14 candidates for the coming Lok Sabha elections, hours after the party’s Central Election Committee (CEC) cleared names for several seats in the northern state, including Prayagraj and Ghaziabad, but did not touch Amethi or Rae Bareli, according to party functionaries.

The party, during the CEC meeting, also discussed the nominations in three other states – Jharkhand, Telangana and Goa – and the Union territory of Daman and Diu.

Of the 14 seats, the party declared three candidates each from Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh and four each from Telangana and Uttar Pradesh.

In Uttar Pradesh, the Congress fielded Dolly Sharma from Ghaziabad. Sharma, who is considered close to party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, was defeated by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) member and Union minister VK Singh in 2019.

The party fielded Shivram Valmiki from Bulandshahr and announced Virendra Chaudhury’s candidature from Maharajganj. Chaudhury is a sitting MLA from Pharenda and district president of the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee.

According to party functionaries aware of the details, the CEC is likely to have approved Ujjwal Raman Singh, son of Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Rewati Raman Singh, as the Congress candidate from Prayagraj. A formal announcement is yet to be made.

The Congress is fighting the polls in an alliance with the SP.

“It is a well-thought out plan. We don’t have strong candidates in the seat and Singh’s candidature helps us to stem any possible rebellion by SP’s rank and file in that area,” a senior Congress leader said, seeking anonymity.

Rewati, a former member of both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, is an influential SP leader in Prayagraj. The BJP is yet to declare its candidate from the seat.

Nakul Dubey, former minister in the Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) government, was picked for Sitapur.

In Madhya Pradesh, the Congress pitted Rao Yadvendra Singh, a former BJP leader, against Union civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia from Guna. Singh, who hails from Ashoknagar, is fighting the Lok Sabha polls for the first time.

The party announced the candidature of Tarvar Singh Lodhi from Damoh and Pratap Bhanu Sharma from Vidisha.

In Telangana, Athram Sugana is the party contestant from Adilabad, a seat reserved for the Scheduled Tribes, while Neelam Madhu is the candidate from Medak. In Bhongir, C Kiran Kumar Reddy has been given a ticket.

While the principal opposition party cleared around 18 seats across Uttar Pradesh, Telangana and Jharkhand during its latest meeting, the CEC left the decision on the two Goa Lok Sabha seats to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and former party chief Sonia Gandhi.

A CEC member said that in Jharkhand, Congress veteran Subodh Kant Sahay’s candidature from Ranchi was put on hold and no final decision was taken in the meeting. However, JP Patel’s candidature from Hazaribagh was approved.

Sukhdeo Bhagat will contest from the reserved seat of Lohardaga while Kalicharan Munda is set to fight from Khunti, the latest list showed.