The Central Election Committee of the Congress party will meet at 6 PM in New Delhi on Thursday to finalise its candidates for the coming Lok Sabha elections. Congress general secretary in-charge of communications Jairam Ramesh said the party’s poll body will meet for the first time tomorrow.
“The first meeting of @INCIndia Central Election Committee(CEC) that considers and decides on candidates for Lok Sabha polls is being held at 6pm on March 7,” Ramesh said in a post on X.
The meeting will be attended by key party functionaries including Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, former presidents Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi and other senior leaders part of the CEC.
The meeting comes amid speculation that the party may field Rahul from Amethi once again while his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra may contest from the Raebareli seat that was vacated by her mother Sonia Gandhi to contest the Rajya Sabha elections last month.
Rahul Gandhi, who lost to BJP leader Smriti Irani from Amethi in the 2019 elections, may also contest from the Wayanad seat like last time, sources said. For Priyanka, the coming Lok Sabha elections will be her debut into electoral politics after handling the party’s poll strategies for several years now.
The BJP, on the other hand, declared its candidates for 195 seats on March 2 following a late-night meeting of the party’s Central Election Committee chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The BJP, which has set a target of securing 370 seats, has fielded candidates from all sections of society. The list, while repeating some senior leaders, excluded many notable figures such as Pragya Thakur, Narendra Singh Tomar, Dr Harsh Vardhan, Ramesh Bhiduri and Pravesh Verma.
The Lok Sabha elections are scheduled to be held in April-May this year. The Election Commission of India is expected to announce the schedule for the Lok Sabha polls any time after March 13.