Rahul Gandhi, Baghel, Venugopal, Tharoor In First Congress Candidate List For LS Polls 2024

The Congress on Friday announced Bhupesh Bhaghel from Chhatisgarh; Rahul Gandhi, KC Venugopal, Shah Tharoor from Kerala; and DK Suresh from Karnataka in its first list of 39 candidates. There are 15 candidates from the general category while 24 names are from Schedule Castes, Schedule Tribes, Other Backward Classes, and Minorities.

Ex-Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel will contest the Lok Sabha poll from Rajnandgaon, K C Venugopal to contest from Alappuzha in Kerala, Shashi Tharoor from the existing Thiruvananthapuram seat, and Rahul Gandhi will also contest his Wayanad seat again.

LIVE: Congress party briefing by Shri @kcvenugopalmp, Shri @ajaymaken and Shri @Pawankhera at AICC HQ. https://t.co/CLwOrLFx9d

— Congress (@INCIndia) March 8, 2024

The Congress’s Central Election Committee (CEC) convened on Thursday to finalise its initial list of candidates for the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections. Despite the meeting being attended by Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge and former chief Sonia Gandhi at the party’s Delhi headquarters, the list’s release was deferred, keeping the seats represented by the Gandhis shrouded in suspense. Media reports, citing sources, indicated that the first list would be made public on Friday, March 8.

Rahul Gandhi, Congress leader and participant in the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra in Jaipur, was expected to join the meeting virtually but ultimately did not attend. Meanwhile, the party’s screening committee in Kerala recommended Rahul Gandhi’s candidacy for the Wayanad seat, where he was the incumbent MP.

Although it was highly probable that Rahul Gandhi would contest from Wayanad again, it remained uncertain whether he would also return to Amethi, his former constituency.

Amidst the political anticipation, the potential political debut of Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra remained uncertain. Despite strong sentiments among Congress workers advocating for Priyanka Gandhi’s candidacy in Raebareli, following Sonia Gandhi’s departure to contest in the Rajya Sabha polls, no official decision was made.

In the likely candidates’ list, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor was anticipated to contest from Thiruvananthapuram, while in Chhattisgarh, former Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, Tamradhwaj Sahu, Jyotsna Mahant, and Shiv Dehariya were considered for Rajnandgaon, Durg, Korba, and Janjgir-Champa seats, respectively.

The Karnataka Congress, still in the process of finalising candidates for 4-5 seats, had not concluded discussions on the Gulbarga seat during the CEC meeting. There were reports of Radhakrishna Doddamani, son-in-law of Mallikarjun Kharge, being a frontrunner for the ticket.

In Delhi, the Congress unit submitted an extensive list of potential candidates for the seven Lok Sabha seats. The high command instructed the Delhi unit to streamline the names for the final approval, with discussions revolving around JP Agrawal, Sandeep Dikshit, and Alka Lamba for the Chandni Chowk seat, and Arvinder Singh Lovely and Anil Chowdhary for Northeast Delhi. Rajkumar Chauhan and Udit Raj were under consideration for Northwest Delhi, as per sources.