LS polls: Cong CEC meet to finalise candidates for remaining seats today

The second meeting of the Congress party's Central Election Committee (CEC) will be held at the All India Congress Committee (AICC) headquarters in Delhi on Monday evening, party sources said.

According to party sources, the meeting has been convened at 6 pm and will be chaired by party national president Mallikarjun Kharge. Congress Parliamentary Party Chairperson Sonia Gandhi and party MP Rahul Gandhi are also expected to attend the meeting.

The sources said that discussions will be held on the Lok Sabha seats of Karnataka, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Tamil Nadu, Delhi, and Madhya Pradesh.

Earlier, Congress released its first list of candidates for 39 Lok Sabha constituencies on March 8.

The names have been announced for Lok Sabha seats in Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Kerala, Lakshwadeep, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Sikkim, Telangana, and Tripura.

Of the total 39 candidates announced, 16 are from Kerala, seven from Karnataka, six from Chhattisgarh, and four from Telangana.

Two from Meghalaya and one each from Nagaland, Tripura, Sikkim, and Lakshwadeep.

The list of 39 candidates was released after the first Central Election Committee meeting, which was held on March 7.

Addressing the press conference, KC Venugopal said, "Out of these 39 candidates, 15 are from General category and 24 are from SC, ST, OBC, and minorities."

The BJP has already released its first list of 195 candidates. The Lok Sabha polls are likely to be held in April-May this year.