For Wayanad, Rahul? Congress will provide its first list today

On Thursday, the Congress party’s Central Election Committee (CEC) convened to finalize the first slate of candidates for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The committee has selected the finalists for various positions, including those in Delhi, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Telangana, Lakshadweep, Kerala, Meghalaya, Tripura, Sikkim, and Manipur.

The meeting was attended by AICC General Secretary (Organization), KC Venugopal, former party boss Sonia Gandhi, and other committee members in addition to Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge. Rahul Gandhi, the former president of the party, virtually attended the conference.

Revanth Reddy, the chief minister of Telangana, and DK Shivakumar, the deputy chief minister of Karnataka, attended the conference to finalize the list along with other top politicians.

Leading members of Congress said that Friday morning would see the unveiling of the first list of candidates. K Sudhakaran, the state president of the Kerala Congress, told the reporters at a briefing that the list, which would be revealed on Friday, will have twists and turns. Regarding Rahul Gandhi’s potential Wayanad candidacy, he remained silent.

Rahul Gandhi is one of the fifteen current Members of Parliament whose names were suggested by the Kerala section of the Congress screening committee for Wayanad. The committee has delegated authority to the CEC to decide on the Alappuzha seat.

Since January, our screening committees have been hard at work compiling the list of potential applicants. All state leaders and PCCs have met with the high leadership. A Congress leader said, “It is perhaps the first time the party has taken such efforts to bridge all disparities.

There is a lot of conjecture around the candidacies of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra from Rae Bareli, a seat that Sonia Gandhi formerly represented, and Rahul Gandhi from Amethi. The local Congress units have insisted that the two scions of the Congress first family run from those seats, which are regarded as strongholds of the Gandhi family.

To choose the applicants, the Uttar Pradesh screening committee has not yet convened. Former Amethi MP Rahul Gandhi was defeated in 2019 but became victorious from Wayanad in Kerala.

In the meanwhile, a number of state-level congressional units have already had screening committee meetings and distributed the states’ likely candidate lists. The party has announced the names of its candidates, many of whom are youthful, for 28 of the 29 seats in Madhya Pradesh, where it will run candidates.

As part of a seat-sharing arrangement, Kamal Nath’s son Nakul Nath will run from Chhindwara, while the Samajwadi Party will compete from the Kajuraho seat. Former ministers Tarun Bhanot and Lakhan Singh Yadav, as well as PCC leader Jitu Patwari, are also on the list.

On March 11, there will be a second CEC meeting.