New Delhi: The Congress election committee on late Thursday evening has finalised its candidates in six of the ten states in focus, revealed sources in the party on Friday.
The list under discussion encompassed Delhi, Chhattisgarh, Telangana, Karnataka, Kerala, Manipur, Meghalaya, Tripura, Sikkim, and Lakshadweep. Notably, the party has deferred addressing electoral matters in the northeast to subsequent rounds of discussions.
Talking to the media, senior party leader KC Venugopal assured that a formal announcement regarding the finalized candidates would be made soon. He said, “We finalized seats from Kerala, Karnataka, Telangana, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, and Lakshadweep. The procedure is ongoing, and a formal announcement will be made very soon.”
Sources also said the Congress has made some key decisions. They added that the party has also finalised Rahul Gandhi’s decision to contest from Wayanad in Kerala. Meanwhile, former Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel is set to contest from Rajnandgaon in Chhattisgarh and Jyotsna Mahant will fight the Lok Sabha polls from the Korba seat.
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Notably, all major leaders from Chhattisgarh are expected to join the electoral fray. Furthermore, the Congress plans to field candidates for 16 out of the 20 seats in Kerala, with former Union Minister Shashi Tharoor among the notable contenders.
In Karnataka, the party has decided not to nominate state ministers as candidates, citing reports of their reluctance to participate in the national elections.
However, D K Suresh, the brother of state party chief D K Shivakumar, has emerged as a candidate. However, the fate of Kalburgi, the seat held by Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge, remains undecided.
The committee is scheduled to reconvene on Monday to continue deliberations.
With the Lok Sabha election set to take place in the summer, the Congress has commenced the process of finalizing candidates, notwithstanding unresolved seat-sharing issues in Maharashtra and West Bengal, which jointly account for 90 seats.
Negotiations with allies of the Maha Vikas Aghadi coalition in Maharashtra, regarding the allocation of the state’s 48 seats, are ongoing. Meanwhile, in West Bengal, efforts are underway to assuage Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, who has suspended her INDIA membership, expressing discontent with the current trajectory of the seat-sharing negotiations.
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