New Delhi: The Congress on Friday declared the first list of 39 candidates for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. Former Congress chief and senior party leader Rahul Gandhi will contest the polls from the Wayanad constituency in Kerala.
The candidates were announced by Congress leader KC Venugopal in the presence of party leaders Ajay Maken and Pawan Khera at a media briefing in the national capital. "In this list, 15 are from general and 24 from SC/ST/OBC and minority. 12 people are below 50 years of age," Venugopal said.
Rahul Gandhi, son of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and former Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, was elected as an MP in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls from Wayanad. He, however, lost to BJP's Smriti Irani from the Amethi constituency in Uttar Pradesh in the 2019 general elections.
The Mallikarjun Kharge-led party announced a total of 39 candidates. Among other prominent candidates, who will contest the upcoming Lok Sabha polls are former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel (Rajnandgaon), DK Suresh (Bengaluru Rural), Shashi Tharoor (Thiruvananthapuram) and K C Venugopal (Alappuzha). DK Suresh is the brother of senior Congress leader and Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar.
The Congress also announced the candidature of Dr Shivkumar Dahariya (Jangir-Champa - SC), Jyotsana Mahant (Korba), Rajendra Sahu (Durg), Vikas Upadhyay (Raipur), Tamradhwaj Sahu (Mahasamund) in Chhattisgarh.
In Karnataka, H R Algur will contest from Bijapur-SC, Anandswamy Gaddadevara Math from Haveri, Geetha Shivarajkumar from Shimoga, Shreyas Patel from Hassan, S P Muddahanumegowda from Tumkur, Venkataramegowda from Mandya.
In Kerala, Congress has fielded Rajmohan Unnithan from Kasaragod, K Sudhakaran from Kannur, Shafi Parambli from Vadakara, MK Raghavan from Kozhikode, VK Sreekandan from Palakkad, Ramya Haridas from Alathur-SC, K Muraleedharan from Thrissur, Benny Behanan from Chalakudy, Hibi Eden from Ernakulam, Deam Kuriakose from Idukki, Kodikunnil Suresh from Mavelikkara-SC, Anto Antony from Pathanamthitta and Adoor Prakash from Attingal.
The grand old party also candidates for 4 seats in Telangana. Suresh Kumar Shetkar will contest from Zahirabad, Raghuveer Kunduru will contest from Nalgonda, Challa Vamshi Chand Reddy from Mahbubnagar and Balaram Naik Porika from Mahabubabad -ST.
Mohd. Hamdullah Sayeed will be the Congress candidate from Lakshadweep - ST. Congress also announced that Vincent H Pala will conest from Shillong -ST and Saleng Sangma from Tura-ST - both in Meghalaya. In Nagaland, S Supogmeren Jamir will contest from Nagaland, while Gopal Chettri from Sikkim.
Congress also announced that Ashish Kumar Saha will contest from Tripura West constituency in Tripura.
"We are on the election mode. On one side, Rahul Gandhi is doing 'Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra', which is in Gujarat. The Yatra will be culminated at a rally in Mumbai on March 17. Congress President (Mallikarjun Kharge) will invite all INDIA alliance leaders to the Mumbai rally," Venugopal said.
