Lok Sabha elections 2024: Congress’s “safe bets” among political scions | See the whole list

In the face of relentless criticism from Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) regarding dynasty politics within the opposition I.N.D.I.A bloc, the Congress party has announced candidates for at least 23 of the 192 constituencies that will be up for election in the Lok Sabha in 2024. Five ministers who are currently in office have three daughters and two sons running for office in Karnataka.

 

Shashi Tharoor, the leader of the Congress, said that it is deeply embedded in India’s cultural fabric and is common not just in the BJP but also in the grand old party.

In support of dynasty politics in national parties, Tharoor said that it is a custom rather than an aberration, citing it as an aspect of Indian culture. “It is a typical occurrence in India—far more so than in the West—for a parent to expect his kid to follow in his professional footsteps. Thus, it’s not shocking in the slightest for any of the parties to exhibit any “parivar vaad,” according to Tharoor.

During his Lok Sabha election rallies, Tharoor mocked Modi’s anti-dynasty campaign, claiming that all BJP MPs and ministers, with the exception of a select few individuals, are the sons or daughters of other prominent BJP officials.

This is a list of the leaders.
Gaurav Gogoi

Deputy leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha, Gaurav Gogoi, is running for the Lok Sabha from the Jorhat seat. After delimitation, the Kaliabor constituency was renamed Kaziranga, and Gaurav Gogoi is the current Member of Parliament representing it. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Gogoi secured an 82,653-vote majority, garnering 5,43,288 votes as opposed to 4,60,635 for Congressman Sushanta Borgohain, who subsequently became a member of the BJP.

The Congress politician, an MP from the Kaliabor seat (renamed Kaziranga after the delimitation procedure), moved to Jorhat, which was formerly held in Parliament for three years by his late father, former chief minister Tarun Gogoi. Assam’s 14 Lok Sabha seats will be up for election in three stages on April 19, April 26, and May 7.

Nakul Nath

In his election affidavit, Nakul Nath, the lone Madhya Pradesh Congress MP who has been renominated by his party from Chhindwara, disclosed assets of around Rs 700 crore. According to the non-profit Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR), the current Member of Parliament for Chhindwara, who happens to be the son of prominent Congress politician and former state minister Kamal Nath, was ranked first among 475 Lok Sabha crorepati MPs in 2019.

With the exception of Chhindwara, the BJP has won 28 of the 29 Lok Sabha seats in MP in 2019. In opposition to Nakul Nath, the saffron party has put forward Vivek Bunty Sahu, the president of the district unit. Even though the Congress has only ever lost an election in the Chhindwara seat, which has historically served as its stronghold, the BJP is exerting all of its efforts to take this seat this time.

On April 19, the first round of the election will take place in Chhindwara, including five other state parliamentary seats: Sidhi, Shahdol, Jabalpur, Madla, and Balaghat. There will be four stages to the Madhya Pradesh Lok Sabha elections. Polling would begin on April 19 and continue on April 26, May 7, and May 13.

Chidambaram Karti

Karti Chidambaram, the son of seasoned Congressman P Chidambaram, was given the reins for the next April 19 Lok Sabha elections in 2024 after winning from the Sivaganga seat in 2019.

On April 19, the first round of the general elections will take place, with voting for all 39 seats in Tamil Nadu. The Secular Progressive Alliance, headed by the DMK and consisting of the Congress, VCK, MDMK, CPI, CPI(M), IUML, MMK, KMDK, TVK, and AIFB, won 38 out of 39 seats in the state in the 2019 general elections. With a 33.2 percent vote percentage, the DMK secured 23 Lok Sabha seats in 2019, while the Congress secured 8 seats with a 12.9% vote share and the CPI secured two seats in Tamil Nadu.

Virender Rawat

Virender Rawat, the son of former Uttarakhand Chief Minister and Congress stalwart Harish Rawat, is running from Haridwar in Uttarakhand. The first phase of Uttarakhand’s election to choose the five members of the future 18th Lok Sabha will take place on April 19.

Shinde Praniti

Sushil Kumar Shinde, a former Union minister, is the father of Praniti Shinde. She is running from Maharashtra’s Solapur.

With 48 Lok Sabha seats, Maharashtra has the second-largest number after Uttar Pradesh. The BJP, running in coalition with the Shiv Sena, won 23 of the 25 Lok Sabha seats in the 2019 elections. Maharashtra will have five rounds of elections on April 19, April 26, May 7, May 13, and May 20 for the 48 Lok Sabha seats.

Mansoor Ali Khan

K Rahman Khan, a former Union minister, is the father of Mansoor Khan. He is running in the Karnataka election from Bangalore Central. Karnataka will hold its Lok Sabha elections in two stages on April 26 and May 7.

The remaining 14 constituencies in the northern portion of the state will vote in the second phase on May 7 in the third phase. The 14 Lok Sabha segments in the southern portion of the state will vote on April 26 in the second phase.

Doddamani Radhakrishna

He is Mallikarjun Kharge, the President of the Congress’s son-in-law. Radhakrishna is running from Karnataka’s Gulbarga.

Candidates from Madhya Pradesh’s ties to political families

The candidates for the Congress and BJP hail from political dynasties in more than half of the 29 available seats. When it comes to advancing dynastic politics, the Congress is well ahead of the BJP, but the latter is also not far behind.

There are fifteen BJP and fifteen Congress candidates running for the 29 Lok Sabha seats in MP. Congress has granted tickets to twelve such candidates, while the BJP has nominated three. The candidates running to continue the political heritage of BJP leaders are Anita Chouhan, Himadri Singh, and Jyotiraditya Scindia. Arun Shrivastava, Neelam Mishra, Samrat Saraswar, Satyapal Singh Sikarwar, Digvijaya Singh, Nakul Nath, Kamleshwar Patel, Rao Yadvendra Singh, Rajendra Malviya, Guddu Raja Bundela, and Narendra Patel are among the Congressmen.

Those running for Congress in Madhya Pradesh

Digvijaya Singh, the Congress’s longstanding heavyweight in MP and the Rajgarh candidate, has political origins. Jaivardhan Singh, his son, is the current MLA for the Raghogarh Vidhan Sabha seat, which his father, Balbhadra Singh, held. Laxman Singh, Digvijaya’s brother, has also previously served as a representative for Rajgarh in the Lok Sabha. The son of former chief minister Kamal Nath, who was elected nine times from the Chhindwara Lok Sabha constituency until giving up his seat for his son in the 2019 local elections, is Nakul Nath, the Congress candidate from Chhindwara and the state’s only Congress member of parliament. Kamleshwar Patel, the Congress candidate from Sidhi, is the son of Indrajeet Kumar, a former cabinet minister in the state government of Maharashtra.

Similar to this, Rao Yadvendra Singh, the Congress candidate from Guna, is the son of the late Deshraj Singh Yadav, a prominent BJP politician. Other members of his family have also entered politics and have ties to both the Congress and the BJP. Rajendra Malviya, a Congress candidate running for the Dewas LS seat, is the son of Radha Kishan Malviya, a former state congress president. Guddu Raja Bundela, the Congress candidate from Sagar, is descended from a wealthy Thakur family in Lalitpur, Uttar Pradesh. In 1999, Sujan Singh Bundela, his father, was elected to the Lok Sabha from the Jhansi seat. Sukhlal Kushwaha, the father of Satna Congress candidate Siddharth Kushwaha, was a Satna LS MP elected on a BSP platform. Arun Shrivastava, the Congress candidate from the Bhopal local seat, is the son of Vimla Shrivastava, a prominent member of the party who has held a number of roles. Neelam Mishra, a Rewa congress candidate, is the wife of Abhay Mishra, a Balaghat congress candidate, and Samrat Saraswar is the daughter of former MLA Ashok Saraswar.

While Satyapal Singh Sikarwar’s older brother and sister-in-law are both politicians from Gwalior, his father, Gajraj Singh Sikarwar, a two-time MLA, is a contender for the Congress from Morena. Tarachand Patel, a former member of parliament, is the nephew of Khandwa Congress candidate Narendra Patel.

2024 Lok Sabha elections

Notably, beginning on April 19, there will be seven phases to the election for the 543 Lok Sabha seats. In the general election, over 97 crore citizens are eligible to cast ballots. June 4 is when the votes will be tallied.