NEW DELHI: The Central Election Committee (CEC) of Congress met on Thursday to finalise the first list of party’s candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. The committee has finalised candidates for Delhi, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Telangana, Lakshadweep, Kerala, Meghalaya,Tripura, Sikkim and Manipur, among others.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, former party chief Sonia Gandhi and AICC general secretary (organisation), KC Venugopal and other members of the committee attended the meeting. Former party president Rahul Gandhi joined the meeting virtually.
Apart from other senior leaders, Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy and Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar also attended the meeting to finalise the list.
Senior Congress leaders said that the first list of candidates will be released on Friday morning. Briefing the media, Kerala Congress state president K Sudhakaran said that there will be surprises and twists in the list, which will be announced on Friday. He declined to comment on whether Rahul Gandhi will contest from Wayanad or not.
The screening committee of Kerala unit of Congress has proposed the names of 15 sitting MPs, including Rahul Gandhi for Wayanad. However, the committee has left the decision on Alappuzha seat to the CEC.
“Our screening committees have been working rigorously since January to prepare the list of candidates. The high command has held meetings with all state leaders and PCCs. It is probably for the first time that the party made such efforts to close all gaps,” said a Congress leader.
Speculation is rife over Rahul Gandhi’s candidature from Amethi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s from Rae Bareli, a constituency previously held by Sonia Gandhi. Both the seats are considered bastions of the Gandhi family and the local units of the Congress have demanded that the two scions of the Congress first family should contest from there.
However, the screening committee of Uttar Pradesh is yet to hold any meetings to pick the candidates. Rahul Gandhi, who was previously an MP from Amethi, lost the seat in 2019 but won from Wayanad in Kerala.
Meanwhile, several state units of the Congress have already held meetings of their respective screening committees and have forwarded the list of probables in their states. In Madhya Pradesh, the party will be contesting in 28 out of the 29 seats and the screening committee has already finalised the names of candidates, which has more young faces.
While Samajwadi Party will be contesting in the Kajuraho seat as per seat-sharing alliance, Kamal Nath’s son Nakul Nath will be contesting from Chhindwara. PCC chief Jitu Patwari and former ministers Tarun Bhanot, and Lakhan Singh Yadav also figure in the list.
The second CEC meeting will be held on March 11.