Congress drops Jaipur Lok Sabha poll candidate Sunil Sharma amid row

NEW DELHI: The Congress on Sunday dropped Sunil Sharma from Jaipur seat for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls and instead chose to field former Rajasthan minister Pratap Singh Khachariyavas in his place.

The development comes after the party released the fifth list of candidates for the Lok Sabha polls.

The controversy over Sharma's candidature erupted after he was allegedly found out to be one of the directors of Jaipur Dialogues, which usually propagates content critical of Congress.

Sunil Sharma, however denied having any association with the platform and called the attempts to link him to it "completely fake news".

Responding to the allegations levelled against him, Sharma said he had severed ties with the platform long back and that "false propaganda is being floated to diminish the prospects of the Congress Party".

Sharma claimed that he never had anything to do with the management of the Jaipur Dialogue YouTube channel and that he was often invited on all news channels and YouTube channels as a panelist on "building an inclusive India as per the Congress philosophy".

"I have long ago severed relations with the directorship of Jaipur Dialogue Forum (which has nothing to do with the ownership of YouTube) about which some people, due to their vested interests, are spreading rumours," Sharma wrote on X.

Congress general secretary K C Venugopal stated that the party has fielded Murari Lal Meena as its candidate in the Dausa Lok Sabha constituency of Rajasthan. It also fielded Pratibha Suresh Dhanorkar from the Chandrapur Lok Sabha constituency in Maharashtra.