Congress releases first list of 39 candidates for LS polls; Rahul Gandhi to contest from Wayanad

Congress's Rahul Gandhi, KC Venugopal, Bhupesh Baghel and Tamradhwaj Sahu are among the 39 candidates the party on Friday announced in its first list of 39 candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha election.

New Delhi: Congress bigwigs Rahul Gandhi, KC Venugopal, Bhupesh Baghel and Tamradhwaj Sahu are among the 39 candidates, the party on Friday announced in its first list of candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

Of the 39, seven candidates are from Karnataka, including the party’s lone sitting MP D K Suresh (Bengaluru Rural). The first list did not have a name for Gulbarga, the stronghold of Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge which he represented twice but lost last time.

Congress has also announced 17 for Kerala, six candidates for Chhattisgarh, four in Telangana, two for Meghalaya and one each in Lakshadweep, Nagaland, Tripura and Sikkim.

Altogether, Congress is fielding 16 sitting MPs while dropping one in Kerala to balance caste and religion equation when Venugopal returns to electoral politics.

The fielding of former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel (Rajnandgaon) and former state minister Tamradhwaj Sahu (Mahasamund), both sitting MLAs, as well as Venugopal from Kerala’s Alappuzha is part of the plan to maximise its numbers in Lok Sabha, which had plummeted to double digits in the past two general elections.

The move is also likely to put pressure on leaders like Ashok Gehlot who are reluctant to fight the Lok Sabha elections to change their mind.

Releasing the list, Venugopal said that 24 of the candidates belong to Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST), Other Backward Classes (OBC) and minorities while the rest 15 are from general category.

Twelve of them are below the age of 50 years while eight are between 50-60 years, 12 in 61-70 age group and seven of above 70 years. Only three of the 39 are women.

Rahul is being fielded once again from Wayanad where he will fight against CPI national leader Annie Raja. Venugopal did not provide a direct answer on whether Rahul will fight from a second seat Amethi, which he lost last time, saying they will provide details once the CEC takes a decision.

Besides Baghel and Sahu, the Congress has cleared the names of sitting Korba MP Jyotsana Mahant, Shivkumar Dahariya (Jangir Champa), Rajendra Sahu (Durg) and Vikas Upadhyay (Raipur).

Except for T N Prathapan, all 14 sitting MPs in Kerala, including Shashi Tharoor, Kodikkunnil Suresh, Hibi Eden and K Muralidharan, have been re-nominated.

Prathapan, who was asked by the party earlier to start his campaign unofficially, had to sit out as the party wanted to field at least one Muslim candidate.

Sitting MLA Shafi Parambil has been fielded from Vadakara from where sitting MP shifted to Prathapan’s Thrissur enabling the party to field Venugopal from Alappuzha, the lone seat Congress lost last time.

In indications that the talks with Trinamool Congress is not going anywhere, the party has also announced candidates for both the seats in Meghalaya.

Sitting MP Vincent H Pala will fight from Shilling once again while Saleng A Sangma will fight from Tura, which the Trinamool Congress has demanded.

At one point, Congress leaders had said that it was willing to sacrifice Tura if it helped them in forging an alliance in West Bengal where Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee has said that she will not leave any seat for Congress.

In Telangana, the Congress has chosen senior leader K Jana Reddy’s son Raghuveer Kunduru from Nalgonda, represented by state minister N Uttam Reddy who resigned after being elected as an MLA.

AICC Secretary C Vamshi Chand Reddy has been fielded from Mahbubnagar while Balram Naik Poikra (Mahbubabad) and Suresh Kumar Shetkar (Zahirabad) also find their names in the list.

In Tripura, Congress has cleared Ashish Kumar Saha’s name for Tripura West. It is also fielding state president SS Jamir from the lone Nagaland seat while Gopal Chettri is fighting from the lone seat in Sikkim. Hamdullah Sayeed is the candidate for Lakshadweep.