Congress on Friday announced its first list of 31 candidates for the upcoming Haryana Assembly elections. Among the notable names is Olympian Vinesh Phogat, who joined the party earlier in the day and will contest from the Julana constituency.
Former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda will seek re-election from the Garhi Sampla-Kiloi seat, while sitting MLA Mamman Khan has been fielded again from Ferozepur Jhirka.
The party’s Central Election Committee (CEC), including party president Mallikarjun Kharge, Sonia Gandhi, and Bhupinder Singh Hooda, met on Friday to finalise the candidates. This list marks the party’s first step in the Haryana election campaign.
The list was released after the Central Election Committee (CEC) of the Congress met here, with Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, former party chief Sonia Gandhi, party general secretary in-charge organisation KC Venugopal, All India Congress Committee (AICC) in-charge of Haryana Deepak Babaria and Hooda, among others, attending the meeting.
The Congress has fielded Mewa Singh from Ladwa to take on Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini.
The party has also fielded Surender Panwar from Sonipat, Bharat Bhushan Batra from Rohtak, Kuldeep Vats from Badli, Chiranjeev Rao from Revari and Neeraj Sharma from Faridabad NIT.
Earlier, on the possibility of any MP contesting the polls, Babaria said after the CEC meeting, “To date, no MP has been permitted to contest Assembly elections.”
(With inputs from PTI)