Cong's poll body meets to finalise 1st list of candidates for LS elections

The top leadership of the Congress is attending a meeting in the national capital on Thursday to finalise the party's candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, former party chief Sonia Gandhi and general secretary, organisation, K C Venugopal, as well as other senior leaders who are part of the Congress' Central Election Committee (CEC) were present at the meeting.

Finalising candidates for Delhi, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Telangana, Lakshadweep, Kerala, Meghalaya, Tripura, Sikkim and Manipur, among others, is expected to be discussed during the meeting.

The Congress has not declared any candidate so far. Last week, the BJP came out with its first list of 195 candidates for the Lok Sabha elections.

Congress sources said the party is likely to declare its first list of candidates soon to enable the candidates to start their poll campaign.

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.

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 probable candidates in their states.

Chaired by party president Kharge, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, the committee also includes Congress general secretary K C Venugopal, Ambika Soni, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, T S Singhdeo and Mohammad Jawaid, among others.