New Delhi: The top leadership of the Congress will meet in the national capital Thursday to finalise the party’s candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections amid speculation that Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra may contest from Uttar Pradesh.
“The first meeting of the Congress’ Central Election Committee (CEC) that considers and decides on candidates for Lok Sabha polls is being held at 6 pm on March 7th,” AICC general secretary, communications, Jairam Ramesh said in a post on X.
Top leaders including president Mallikarjun Kharge and former chiefs Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi will be present at the meeting, besides other senior leaders who are part of the panel.
The Congress has not declared any candidate so far. Last week, the BJP came out with its first list of 195 candidates for the Lok Sabha elections.
Congress sources said the party is likely to declare its first list of candidates soon to enable the candidates to start their poll campaign.
Speculation is rife over Rahul Gandhi’s candidature from Amethi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s from Rae Bareli, a constituency previously held by Sonia Gandhi. Both the seats are considered bastions of the Gandhi family and the local units of the Congress have demanded that the two scions of the Congress first family should contest from there.
Rahul Gandhi, who was previously an MP from Amethi, lost the seat last time but won from Wayanad in Kerala.
Meanwhile, several states have already held meetings of their respective screening committees and have forwarded the list of candidates for seats in their states.
Chaired by party president Kharge, the committee also includes AICC general secretary K C Venugopal, Ambika Soni, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and T S Singhdeo, among others.
PTI