Congress fields Muslim candidates for UP Assembly bypolls

Lucknow: The Congress party on Thursday announced its candidates for the upcoming by-elections from three assembly constituencies of Deoband, Muzaffarnagar and Bikapur.

The party would field Mavia Ali from Deoband, Salman Sayeed from Muzaffarnagar and Asad Ahmad Ansari from Bikapur, Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee (UPCC) chief Nirmal Khatri told reporters here. 

Khatri said the central leadership of the Congress has cleared the names and that the party was going into the by-elections with all seriousness.

The Congress is the second party after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to have announced its candidates for the by-elections.

Each of the three seats was held by the ruling Samajwadi Party (SP). The by-elections have been necessiated by the death of the incumbents.