Chicago – March 08, 2024
The Congress’ top election body is said to have cleared the candidature of party leader Rahul Gandhifor the Wayanad constituency in the upcoming Lok Sabha election. Sources also said that Shashi Tharoor will be again fielded from Thiruvananthapuram, where he has won three consecutive Lok Sabha elections. There is, however, no official announcement from the party.
The party’s central election committee (CEC) met on Thursday evening to discuss the first batch of names. Sources indicated that several names have been cleared and the first list could be released by Friday. The discussion focused on candidates for the northeastern States, Kerala, Karnataka, Telangana, Chhattisgarh, and Delhi. The Kerala unit, in fact, had proposed names of all the sitting MPs.
Apart from Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge, the meeting was attended by party leaders Sonia Gandhi, K.C. Venugopal and others. Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar, former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel and senior leader Ramesh Chennithala were also invited. Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy joined the call at 9.30 p.m. Mr. Reddy, according to sources, is also lobbying for Mr. Gandhi to contest from his State.
If Mr. Gandhi returns to contest the Wayanad seat, he will be facing senior Communist Party of India (CPI) leader Annie Raja. The Left has been running a campaign to dissuade Mr. Gandhi from candidature in Wayanad, saying that it would send a confused message to the electorate, as Mr. Gandhi is leading the anti-BJP battle but would primarily contest against the CPI instead of a face-off with the BJP.
The BJP had released its first list of 195 candidates on Saturday, stealing a march over the Congress. The CEC meeting started at 8 p.m. and went on for nearly two hours.
