Lok Sabha 2024: In its eighth list of 14 candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, the Congress party opted not to nominate Supriya Shrinate from the Maharajganj constituency in Uttar Pradesh. Despite her previous unsuccessful bid for the seat in the 2019 general elections, the party has chosen to field Virendra Chaudhary as their candidate for Maharajganj instead of Supriya Shrinate.
Supriya Shrinate, a spokesperson for the Congress party, found herself embroiled in controversy following a now-deleted social media post targeting BJP’s Mandi candidate Kangana Ranaut.
On Monday, Shrinate sparked uproar on social media due to an alleged derogatory post directed at actor-turned-politician Kangana Ranaut. The since-deleted post, accompanied by a disparaging caption, criticized Ranaut’s candidacy for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls in Mandi.
Shrinate asserted that individuals other than herself had access to her Facebook and Instagram accounts and that one of them had made the “extremely inappropriate” post, which she promptly removed upon discovery.
“I immediately deleted the post as soon as I became aware of it. Anyone familiar with me knows well that I would never make personal or indecent comments about any woman. I am eager to investigate how this occurred,” she stated.
Earlier on Wednesday, the Election Commission issued a show-cause notice to Supriya Shrinate regarding her offensive remarks against Kangana Ranaut. The commission deemed Shrinate’s remarks prima facie violative of the Model Code of Conduct and its directive to political parties to maintain decorum during election campaigning.
The Commission condemned the comments as ‘undignified and in poor taste’ and requested a response from Shrinate by 5 pm on March 29, 2024.
Additionally, on Wednesday, the Congress party unveiled its eighth list of Lok Sabha candidates, positioning Rao Yadvendra Singh against Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia in Madhya Pradesh’s Guna constituency. They also nominated Pratap Bhanu Sharma to contend against former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan in Vidisha, and Tarvar Singh Lodhi from Damoh.
The Congress party announced candidates for four seats each in Uttar Pradesh and Telangana, and three each in Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand. This brings the total number of candidates declared by the party to 208.