Lok Sabha Elections 2024: Congress Finalises 40 More Candidates; Nakul Nath, Vaibhav Gehlot, Rahul Kaswan In Fray

After announcing names of 39 candidates for the Lok Sabha polls, the Congress today finalized names of 40 more canddiates in today's Central Election Committee (CEC) meeting. During the meeting, the party discussed over 60 seats in five states of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh and Assam and finalised the names of about 40 candidates. Among the prominent names are former chief minister Kamal Nath's son Nakul Nath from Madhya Pradesh's Chhindwara and Ashok Gehlot's son Vaibhav from Jalore in Rajasthan. 

According to PTI reports, Ashok Gehlot and Sachin Pilot are unlikely to contest. Earlier, it was being speculated that Congress might field Gehlot, Pilot and CP Joshi to counter the BJP in the Parliamentary polls. The 60 seats that were discussed today included 14 each from Rajasthan, Assam and Gujarat, 16 from Madhya Pradesh and five from Uttarakhand, besides one from Union Territory of Daman and Diu. For Rajasthan, about 10 candidates were finalised, including Rahul Kaswan, who quit the BJP to join the Congress on Monday, from Churu; Vaibhav Gehlot from Jalore and Harish Meena from Tonk-Sawai Madhopur. 

On Friday, Rahul Gandhi's name appeared in the initial roster of 39 candidates, once again representing Kerala's Wayanad. During Monday's meeting, Kumari Selja, the Congress general secretary overseeing Uttarakhand, joined discussions alongside senior leaders from the hill state to finalize candidates for the five seats in the region. The party has already fileded former Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel from Rajnandgaon, AICC general secretary K C Venugopal from Alappuzha (Kerala) and Shashi Tharoor from Thiruvananthapuram.