New Delhi: The Congress on Friday (March 8) announced its first list of candidates for the Lok Sabha elections with 39 names including former Congress president Rahul Gandhi who will once again contest from Kerala’s Wayanad, along with 16 other sitting MPs including Shashi Tharoor and K.C. Venugopal as well as former Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel.
Addressing a press conference in New Delhi, Venugopal who is the Congress general secretary and Rajya Sabha MP said that the first list focuses on “winnability”.
“We are focusing on winnability. This is the first list that was decided in the central election committee meeting under Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge. The next meeting is on March 11,” he said.
The list announced on Friday includes 15 members who are from the general category and 24 from SC/ST/OBC and minority communities.
The list includes 16 candidates from Kerala; 7 from Karnataka; 6 from Chhattisgarh; 4 from Telangana; 2 from Meghalaya; and 1 each in Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura along with its candidate from Lakshadweep.
Rahul Gandhi from Wayanad
Gandhi’s candidacy from his present constituency Wayanad, comes days after the Congress’ INDIA alliance partner Communist Party of India (CPI) announced senior party leader Annie Raja as its candidate for the seat.
In an interview with The Wire, Raja had said that it is the Congress that has to decide whether it wants to fight the BJP or the Left forces and she hopes that “good sense will prevail.”
Venugopal however, said on Friday that the party’s focus is to reduce the BJP’s seats.
“We are trying in the maximum possible way to go with the INDIA alliance but there are issues in West Bengal, Assam and we are trying to sort it out. Congress party is very clear that to reduce BJP seats we are ready to sacrifice anything. But others also need to do that. In some states others also need to move forward,” he said.
While there is still speculation about whether Gandhi will also contest from his old turf of Amethi in Uttar Pradesh where the BJP has already fielded Union minister Smriti Irani in a bid to repeat her 2019 performance, the Congress list is silent on Uttar Pradesh.
Kerala surprise and other sitting MPs
The list includes a total of 17 sitting MPs including Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor who will seek re-election for a fourth term from the constituency and take on Rajya Sabha MP and Union minister Rajeev Chandrashekhar.
Former Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel has also been given a ticket from the state’s Rajnandgaon constituency. He will take on BJP’s sitting MP Santosh Pandey.
The party has however dropped a sitting MP from Kerala’s Thrissur constituency T.N. Prathapan and instead fielded K. Muraleedharan.
The move to field Muraleedharan who is the sitting MP from Vadakara, from Thrissur comes close on the heels of his sister Padmaja Venugopal joining the BJP on Thursday. The saffron party in its list announced last week, has however fielded Suresh Gopi from Thrissur.
Venugopal who is a sitting Rajya Sabha MP will also contest the elections from Kerala’s Alappuzha.
Other MPs that have been fielded include Jyotsna Mahant from Chhattisgarh’s Korba, Kerala MPs V.K Sreekandan (Palakkad), M.K Raghavan (Kozhikode), K. Sudhakaran (Kannur), Rajmohan Unnithan (Kasargod), Ramya Haridas (Alathur), Beny Behanan (Chalakundy), Hibi Eden (Ernakulam), Dean Kuriakose (Idukki), Shashi Tharoor (Thiruvananthapuram), K Suresh (Mavelikkara), Anto Antony (Pathanamthitta), Adoor Prakash (Attingal), and Vincent H Pala from Meghalaya’s Shillong.
No headway with TMC, Meghalaya candidates named
In an indication of talks with the Trinamool Congress not making headway, despite assurances from the Congress top leadership that West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee is with the INDIA alliance, the party has also announced candidates for the two seats in Meghalaya.
Pala, the sitting MP from Shillong has been named once again along with Saleng A Sangma from Tura. Talks were being held between the Congress and the TMC over the Tura seat to take on Agatha Sangma of the National People’s Party-an ally of the BJP-led NDA.
In January, however Banerjee had announced that the TMC would go it solo in West Bengal, and the INDIA alliance will be for the rest of the country.
Other states
Apart from Baghel, and sitting MP Mahant the party has also named Tamradwajh Sahu sitting MLA in Chhattisgarh from Mahasamund. In addition, former state minister Shivkumar Dahariya has been named from Jangir Champa along with Rajendra Sahu from Durg where he will take on sitting BJP MP Vijay Baghel. Former MLA Vikas Upadhyay has been fielded from state capital Raipur.
In Telangana senior party leader K Jana Reddy’s son Raghuveer Kunduru has been fielded from Nalgonda, along with AICC secretary C Vamshi Chand Reddy from Mahbubnagar, Balram Naik Poikra from Mahbubabad and Suresh Kumar Shetkar from Zahirabad.
In Tripura, the party has fielded its state president Ashish Kumar Saha from Tripura West.
Nagaland Congress chief SS Jamir and Sikkim Congress chief Gopal Chettri have been fielded from the lone seats in the respective states. Former MP Mohd Hamdullah Sayeed has been named as the candidate for Lakshadweep.
