NEW DELHI: The Congress on Tuesday announced its second list of 43 candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, fielding former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath’s son Nakul Nath from Chhindwara and former Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot’s son Vaibhav Gehlot from Jalore.
Other notable names include Gaurav Gogoi, Congress’ deputy leader in the Lok Sabha who is being fielded from Assam’s Jorhat, and sitting MP Pradyut Bordoloi from Nagaon. Rajasthan MP Rahul Kaswan, who quit the BJP to join Congress, was fielded from Churu again.
Announcing the candidates, Congress general secretary (Organisation) K C Venugopal said, “We have already announced our first list of candidates for the Lok Sabha elections. Today, we are going to announce the second list. Yesterday, the CEC met and cleared the list of around 43 names from Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan,” he said.
“Out of the 43 candidates, there are 10 from the general category, 13 from Other Backward Classes (OBC), 10 Scheduled Caste (SC), 9 Scheduled Tribe (ST), and 1 Muslim candidate,” said Venugopal.
Notably, names of several senior leaders such as Kamal Nath, Digvijay Singh, Sachin Pilot, and Digvijay Singh are missing from the list. However, the first list featured top guns including Rahul Gandhi, Bhupesh Baghel, K C Venugopal, and Shashi Tharoor.
While there was clamour from party workers for senior leaders Gehlot and Pilot to contest, sources said that the party wants them to focus on the campaign and organizational roles. Sources also said that Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge is unlikely to contest from Karnataka’s Gulbarga.
Earlier this week, Kamal Nath ruled out the possibility of contesting from Jabalpur and said he will not leave Chhindwara, which is currently represented by Nakul Nath.
In Rajasthan, Vaibhav Gehlot had unsuccessfully contested from the Jodhpur seat in 2019 against Union Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat. Former minister Govindram Meghwal has been fielded from Bikaner against Union Minister Arjun Meghwal. In Alwar, the party fielded young leader Lalit Yadav against Union Minister Bhupendra Yadav. Overall, the party has fielded new faces in all 10 seats.
