The Congress on Friday announced its first list of 39 Lok Sabha candidates, showing Rahul Gandhi as nominee from Wayanad amid the swirling speculation about Amethi, the second seat he is said to be determined to contest.
Sources in the Uttar Pradesh Congress said neither Rahul nor Priyanka Gandhi Vadra was ready to abandon the family bastions of Amethi and Rae Bareli. But the candidates for these seats have not been announced since the party’s central election committee discussed only nine states at its first meeting, held on Thursday. The next meeting is on March 11.
Rahul lost to the BJP’s Smriti Irani from Amethi in 2019 while winning from Wayanad in Kerala. Rae Bareli will have a vacancy following Sonia Gandhi’s shift to the Rajya Sabha.
Fifteen of the candidates on the first list are from the general castes while the remaining 24 are from the SCs, STs, OBCs and minorities. Twelve are aged below 50 and only seven are over 70.
Sources said all the senior leaders would be asked to contest the election. The first list seems to bear this out, showing former Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel as the candidate from Rajnandgaon.
Bhupesh Baghel. File Photo
Even K.C. Venugopal, who is already a Rajya Sabha member and has huge responsibilities as general secretary in charge of organisation, has been nominated. He will contest from Alappuzha in Kerala.
Shashi Tharoor, who had challenged Mallikarjun Kharge for the post of party president, has been re-nominated from his constituency of Thiruvananthapuram. Kerala unit president K. Sudhakaran has been fielded from Kannur. Most of the sitting MPs have been re-nominated in Kerala.
Veteran Chhattisgarh politician Tamradhwaj Sahu, who lost the 2023 Assembly elections, has been fielded from Mahasamund. In Raipur, the party has nominated former MLA Vikas Upadhyay, who too lost the Assembly elections. Sitting MP Jyotsna Mahant has been fielded from Korba.
D.K. Suresh, outgoing Bangalore Rural MP and brother of Karnataka deputy chief minister D.K. Shivakumar, has been fielded again from his constituency.
Vincent Pala and Saleng Sangma will contest from Shillong and Tura, respectively, in Meghalaya.
