The Congress party on Friday released it’s first list of candidates ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. As per the list, Rahul Gandhi will contest from Wayanad and Shashi Tharoor will contest the polls from Kerala’s Thiruvananthapuram.
Congress General Secretary KC Venugopal announced the first list of candidates on Friday, a day after the party's Central Election Committee (CEC) held a meeting. The party's candidates from Uttar Pradesh were not on the initial list, and it is unclear if Rahul Gandhi would run from his home state of Amethi.
Other prominent Congress leaders who have been named in the first list include Bhupesh Baghel, K Muraleedharan, KC Venugopal and Shashi Tharoor. The Congress fielded Tamradhwaj Sahu from Mahasamund, Jyotsna Mahant from Korba, Shivkumar Dehariya from Janjgir-Champa, and former chief minister Bhupesh Baghel from Rajnandgaon from Chhattisgarh.
In the Congress-led state of Karnataka, seven candidates were declared. These were Bijapur's HR Algur Raju, Haveri's Anandaswamy Gaddadevara Ma, Shimoga's Geetha Shivarajkumar, Hassan's M Shreyas Patel, Tumkur's SP Muddahanumegowda, Mandya's Venkataramegowda, and Bangalore Rural's DK Suresh.
The list features 15 general category candidates and 24 candidates from the SC, ST, OBC, and minority communities, according to Congress treasurer Ajay Maken, who emphasized the blend of youth and experience within the candidates.
The south is intentionally chosen as the focal point of the campaign since it is the only area in the nation where the BJP is comparatively weak and where the Congress holds governments in the states of Telangana and Karnataka.