Congress's first candidate list likely to be out today: Rahul to fight from Wayanad again; CEC clears 11 names from Karnataka

New Delhi: Rahul Gandhi is all set to fight from Wayanad in the Lok Sabha elections, as the Congress’ Central Election Committee (CEC) on Thursday is learnt to have cleared his name along with a clutch of candidates for around ten states and union territories, including Karnataka where names for 11 seats have been given the green signal.

The decision on Rahul ends the speculation over the top Congress leader seeking re-election from the Kerala seat. Sources said Rahul will also fight from Amethi in all probability but a decision will be taken only at a meeting of the CEC in the future.

The party is likely to announce its first list of candidates on Friday while a second meeting of the CEC is scheduled for March 11.

The CEC chaired by Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge and attended by Sonia Gandhi and senior leaders like Karnataka Power Minister KJ George, cleared names for 11 seats in Karnataka and seven for Telangana.

Sources said sitting MP D K Suresh’s name has been cleared from Bengaluru (Rural) while names for ten seats in rural Karnataka have also been cleared. While Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar was present at the meeting, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah joined via video conferencing.

Former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel is learnt to have been chosen to fight from Rajnandgaon while former minister Tamradhwaj Sahu is likely to be fielded from Durg, as the party has decided to field bigwigs in a bid to maximise its seats. 

Sources said candidates for four out of 11 seats from Chhattisgarh have been finalised. Former Deputy Chief Minister T S Singhdeo is unlikely to contest.

Besides Rahul, the CEC is learnt to be in favour of fielding all 15 sitting MPs, including Congress Kerala president K Sudhakaran who was initially reluctant to fight the elections once again from Kannur and Shashi Tharoor from Thiruvananthapuram.

The CEC also decided to hold further discussions on candidates for three seats in Delhi as the Screening Committee came up with a panel of names. Now, the panel will discuss the names in the next meeting on Monday.

For Chandni Chowk, the names of Alka Lamba, JP Aggarwal and Sandeep Dikshit have been forwarded while for North East Delhi, the names suggested were that of Arvind Lovely and Anil Chowdhury. For the reserved North-East Delhi, the names of Udit Raj and Rajkumar Chouhan were given