SCOOP: Congress to field Sapna Choudhary against BJP's Hema Malini in battle for Uttar Pradesh's Mathura seat in Lok Sabha elections 2019

In the race up to the Lok Sabha elections that are scheduled to be held in seven phases from April 11 to May 19, the BJP released its first set of 185 candidates, that along with senior ministers includes actress-turned-politician Hema Malini. 

Following the announcement of BJP leader Hema Malini contending the Mathura seat in Uttar Pradesh, sources have revealed that Congress is planning to field the famous stage performer from Haryana Sapna Choudhary on the Mathura seat. 

In this poll war ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, apart from contesting against each other, BJP's Hema Malini and Congress' Sapna Choudhary will be placed against Akhilesh Yadav's SP and Mayawati's BSP alliance in Uttar Pradesh. 

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In the state, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be contending from the Varanasi seat in the state, while Home Minister Rajnath Singh will be contending from the state capital and Union Minister Smriti Irani from Amethi, yet again making it a face-off between her and the Congress president Rahul Gandhi.  

Here is the first Uttar Pradesh list: 

• PM Narendra Modi- Varanasi
• Lucknow- Rajnath Singh
• Amethi- Smriti Irani 
• Saharanpur- Raghav Lakhanpal
• Muzaffarnagar- Sanjeev KumarBalyan
• Binjor- Kunwar Bharatendra Singh
• Moradabad- Kunwar Sarvesh Kumar
• Sambhal Parmeshwar Lal Saini
• Amroha- Kanwar Singh Tanwar
• Meerut- Rajendra Agrawal
• Baghpat- Dr. Satya Pal Singh
• Ghaziabad- Dr. Vijay Kumar Singh
• Gautam Buddha Nagar- Dr. Mahesh Sharma
• Aligarh- Satish Kumar Gautam
• Mathura- Hema Malini 
• Agra S.P Singh Baghel
• Fatehpur Sikri- Raj Kumar Chaher
• Etah- Rajveer Singh-MP
• Badaun- Sangha Mitra Maurya
• Aonla- Dharmendra Kumar
• Bareilly- Santosh Kumar Gangwar
• Shahjahanpur- Arun Sagar
• Kheri- Ajay Kumar Mishra
• Sitapur- Rajesh Verma
• Hardoi- Jai Prakash Rawat
• Misrikh- Ashok Rawat
• Unnao- Swami Sakshi ji Maharaj
• Mohanlalganj Kaushal Kishore

On Wednesday, the party held its the third CEC meeting which was chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and found party president Amit Shah, and Union Ministers Rajnath Singh, Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley in attendance. 

The Congress has already announced candidates for 146 Lok Sabha constituencies so far. The deadline to file the nominations is March 25.

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