Imphal, March 20: Higher and Technical Education Minister Dr Thokchom Meinya is among the list of 75 candidates from 15 States cleared by the All India Congress Committee (AICC) tonight for the 14th Lok Sabha elections.

Elected from Konthoujam assembly constituency Dr Meinya will contest from the Inner Manipur Parliamentary seat while hectic discussion is on at the AICC headquarters to finalize on the Congress nominee for the Outer seat, said New Delhi sources.

Absence of party candidate for the Outer seat in the second phase AICC list released tonight might be due to differences between the State and central leaders of the Congress speculated the source referring to the understanding between Congress high command Sonia Gandhi and Sharad Pawar of the Nationalists Congress Party.

While Sharad Pawar had preferred sitting MP Holkhomang Haokip as party nominee for the Outer seat and intimated to the Congress leader to extend support to Holkhomang the move is reportedly opposed by the Manipur Pradesh Congress Committee leaders who insisted, on fielding its own candidate for a friendly fight with the NCP.

Mention may be made that Rajya Sabha MP Rishang Keishing acknowledging the AICC-NCP understanding on candidature for the Outer seat had commented that MPCC would field candidates in both the Inner and Outer seats.

With the announcement of Dr Meinya's candidature number of candidates officially declared by respective political parties have gone to up three for the two phase polling in April month.

The two others are Th Chaoba Singh of the BJP and CPI's Dr M Nara Singh.

Among prospective candidates for the Inner seat are president of Federal Party of Manipur and former Deputy Chief Minister Dr Leisangthem Chandrarnani Singh and MLA Dr Nimaichand Luwang of the Manipur People's Party.

For the Outer seat those likely to be in the fray are Holkhomang Haokip of the NCP, K Rojangzuala of Janata Dal (United), Loli Adanee (BJP), Valley Rose (NNP), former MP Kim Gangte and Charanamei (Independent).

Former Orissa Chief Minister Girdhar Gamang, who is said to have threatened to divorce his wife on possible denial of Koraput (ST) seat, former Karnataka Chief Minister M Veerappa Moily, Sachin Pilot and socialite Nafisa Ali also figured in the second list cleared by the AICC.

While Moily has been nominated to contest from Mangalore.

Pilot has been asked to contest from Dausa, the seat held by his mother Rama Pilot.

Koraput seat was earlier allotted to Hema Gamang but it was changed yesterday after her husband had a meeting with party president Sonia Gandhi.

Nafisa Ali will be taking on Nationalist Trinamool Congress Chief and Union Minister Mamata Banerjee from Calcutta South.

The list contains eight members of the dissolved 13th Lok Sabha.

They are AF Gholam Osmani (Barpeta), Madhav Rajbanshi (Mangaldoi) and MK Subba (Tejpur), all in Assam, S Makwana (Surendra Nagar-Gujarat), Girija Vyas (Udaipur), Sonaram Choudhary (Barmer) and Ramraghunath Choudhary (Nagore), all in Rajasthan, and Dahyabhai V Patil (Daman and Diu).

Bharat Solanki, son of former External Affairs Minister Madhavsinh Solanki, has been given ticket from Anand and AICC secretary Satyajeet Gaekwad from Baroda in Gujarat.

Aiynoor Manjunath, who had defeated former Kamataka Chief Minister S Bangarappa in the 1998 Lok Sabha polls, has been accommodated from Shimoga.

With this list, the Congress has so far cleared the names of 150 candidates including 67 members in the dissolved Lok Sabha.

The second list of 75 candidates included six from Assam, eight from Gujarat, ten from Kamataka, 13 from Orissa, three from Himachal Pradesh, 24 from West Bengal, four from Rajasthan and one each from Punjab, Daman and Diu, Manipur, Meghalaya and Chattisgarh.

Prominent among those selected were Mukul Sangma who is to be pitted against former Lok Sabha Speaker and Nationalist Trinamool Congress leader PA Sangma from Tura, former Orissa PCC chief Sarat Patnaik from Bolangir, former Union Minister Sukhbans Kaur Blunder from Gurdaspur in Punjab, the seat held by film star Vinod Khanna, former CWC member Ganga Potai from Kanker (ST) and B L Shanker from Chikmangloor.

Former Orissa Minister Ramkrishna Patnaik would be contesting from Aska Lok Sabha held by his wife Kumudini Patnaik in the dissolved Lok Sabha.

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