March 12, 2024 06:59 pm | Updated 10:11 pm IST – New Delhi
In this list, the party has focused on its SC, ST and OBC candidates’ selection
Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge with party leaders Ajay Maken and K.C. Venugopal addresses a press conference at his residence, in New Delhi, on March 12, 2024.
| Photo Credit: PTI
The Congress on Tuesday announced its second list of 43 Lok Sabha candidates across five States and one Union Territory, with party general secretary (organisation) K.C. Venugopal stating that 76.7% of the candidates belonged to the Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST), Other Backward Classes (OBC), and minorities.
Deputy Leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha Gaurav Gogoi will be contesting from a new seat in Upper Assam, Jorhat, as his existing seat of Kaliabor has been renamed as Kaziranga after its boundaries were redrawn during a delimitation exercise by the Election Commission of India in 2023.
Jorhat is likely to witness a prestige battle as it is Mr. Gogoi’s father and former Chief Minister the late Tarun Gogoi’s hometown. But the BJP had won the Lok Sabha seat both in 2014 as well as 2019 Lok Sabha polls. The seat is currently held by the BJP’s Tapan Gogoi, who has been renominated.
In Madhya Pradesh, Nakul Nath, son of former Chief Minister Kamal Nath, retained his Chhindwara seat, while former Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot's son, Vaibhav, has been fielded from Jalore. The Hindu had reported that these names were cleared by the party’s central election committee (CEC) on Monday.
Rahul Kaswan, who switched over to the Congress from the BJP on Monday, has been fielded from Rajasthan’s Churu seat, while the party dropped sitting member from Assam, Abdul Khaleque, from the Barpeta Lok Sabha seat in Assam.
In Monday’s CEC meeting, discussions were held for more than 60 seats, out of which 43 candidates were announced on Tuesday. The break-up of seats include 12 from Assam, 10 from Madhya Pradesh, 10 from Rajasthan, seven from Gujarat, three from Uttarakhand, and one from Daman and Diu, Mry. Venugopal said at a press conference. Congress leaders Ajay Maken and Pawan Khera were also at the briefing.
Of the 14 seats in Assam, the Congress didn’t fielded any candidate for Lakhimpur and Dibrugarh, indicating that these seats could go its allies. Former student leader and chief of the Assam Jatiya Parishad, Lurinjyoti Gogoi, is said to be interested in taking on Union Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, who has been fielded from the Dibrugarh Lok Sabha seat by the BJP.
In another interesting battle, the Congress has fielded the party’s deputy leader in the Assam Assembly, Rakibul Hussain, from Dhubri, a Muslim majority seat that has been electing Maulana Badruddin Ajmal, chief of the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) since 2009.
In the 2021 Assembly elections, the Congress and AIUDF were allies but the two parties had a bitter falling soon after.
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