Lok Sabha elections: Congress releases first list; Rahul Gandhi to fight from Wayanad again

Congress has released its first list of candidates for Lok Sabha elections

Congress MP Rahul Gandhi will once again contest from Kerala's Wayanad seat, the party's central election committee (CEC) announced on March 8.

The Congress has released its first list of 39 candidates for the Lok Sabha elections a day after the CEC held a meeting in the national capital.

While the first list included the party's candidates from Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Kerala, Lakshadweep, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Sikkim, Telangana and Tripura, it did not include candidates from Uttar Pradesh.

According to the list, former Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel will contest from Rajnandgaon and Shashi Tharoor from Thiruvananthapuram. Notably, Tharoor will square off against Union Minister and BJP candidate Rajeev Chandrasekhar.

Other prominent names in the list are KC Venugopal (Alappuzha), K Sudhakaran (Kannur), DK Suresh (Bangalore Rural), K Muraleedharan (Thrissur) and Anto Antony (Pathanamthitta).

Lok Sabha Elections 2024" width="1136" height="1600" /> Congress released its first list candidates for Lok Sabha Elections 2024

On March 2, the BJP had released its first list of 195 candidates for the general election, fielding Prime Minister Narendra Modi from his constituency of Varanasi, Union home minister Amit Shah from Gandhinagar and defence minister Rajnath Singh from Lucknow.

In Wayanad, BJP is yet to declare its candidate while CPI has fielded Annie Raja from the constituency.

Over the last few weeks, there had been a growing clamour for Priyanka Gandhi's candidature from Rae Bareli, which has been a Congress stronghold for decades.

The demand grew louder after Sonia Gandhi decided to opt out of the Lok Sabha poll race this year and became a Rajya Sabha member after winning the elections from Rajasthan.

#WATCH | Congress General Secretary KC Venugopal says, "We are in election mode. We are going on an aggressive path in the election campaign. Rahul Gandhi is doing Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra. It has reached Gujarat. It started in Manipur and it will conclude in Mumbai..." pic.twitter.com/9xTe6rvaRU

— ANI (@ANI) March 8, 2024

Rahul Gandhi made his political debut in 2004 from Amethi. He won the seat thrice before losing to BJP's Smriti Irani in 2019.