Lok Sabha elections 2024: Congress likely to field Charanjit Singh Channi from Rajasthan’s Ganganagar

The party’s central poll body cleared more names from states like Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Rajasthan and Gujarat.

New Delhi: Congress is mulling to field former Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi from Rajasthan’s Ganganagar even as the party’s central poll body cleared more names for the Lok Sabha elections from states like Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Rajasthan and Gujarat.

At a meeting of the Central Election Committee chaired by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and attended by panel members former party chief Sonia Gandhi, General Secretary (Organisation) KC Venugopal and Karnataka Minister KJ George among others, sources said names of a  number of candidates have been cleared.

Praniti Shinde has been cleared from Maharashtra’s Solapur while Jai Prakash Patel, a BJP MLA who joined Congress on Wednesday, will contest from Jharkhand’s Hazaribagh, sources said.

Former Minister Subodh Kant Sahay’s name is learnt to have been cleared from Ranchi.

So far, the party has announced candidates for 82 seats. On Tuesday too, the CEC met and is learnt to have cleared candidates for states like Karnataka.

Sources also said Channi has been sounded about the leadership’s plans to field him from Ganganagar, a reserved seat which is bordering Punjab and has a sizeable population of Sikhs and Dalits. 

Initially, Channi was speculated to be fighting from Jalandhar, a seat the AAP snatched from Congress in a bypoll last year. Ganganagar is a seat where the BJP has a sitting MP.

There was also buzz about Gujarat MLA Jignesh Mevani fighting from Jaipur but there was no official word on it.

Danish Ali, a BSP MP who joined Congress on Wednesday, will be fielded from Amroha, his sitting seat.

The panel will be meeting on Thursday afternoon to discuss candidates for Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand.

The party is also likely to discuss candidates for seats in Uttar Pradesh like Saharanpur, Bulandshahr, Amroha, Ghaziabad and Agra, which will be going to polls in the first phase on April 19.