The Congress party released its first list of contenders in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls on Friday, 8 March. The list of 39 contenders, includes some big names, such as former party president Rahul Gandhi who has been fielded from Kerala’s Wayanad, former Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel from Rajnandgaon and Shashi Tharoor from Kerala’s Thiruvananthapuram. The Congress’ list comes less than a week after BJP released its first list of 195 candidates.
Here are some of the key takeaways from Congress’ first list.
Rahul Gandhi to Contest from Wayanad, Amethi Still Unclear
As expected, Rahul Gandhi has been fielded from Wayanad in Kerala, which he had won by a comfortable margin in 2019. But it is unclear whether or not he will also run from Uttar Pradesh’s Amethi, which he had won in 2004, 2009 and 2014 but lost to BJP's Smriti Irani in 2019.
The fate of Sonia Gandhi's seat Rae Bareli is also not clear. There has been speculation that Priyanka Gandhi Vadra could contest from the seat after Sonia Gandhi chose to enter the Rajya Sabha from Rajasthan.
Big Guns Fielded: Bhupesh Baghel, Shashi Tharoor and KC Venugopal
While Shashi Tharoor has held his Thiruvananthapuram seat for three terms now, Bhupesh Baghel will be making his Lok Sabha electoral debut this time around, from Rajnandgaon in Chhattisgarh.
Some of the other big names on this first list are Congress’ General Secretary KC Venugopal, who will contest from Alappuzha in Kerala, a seat he had won back in 2009. Venugopal is presently a Rajya Sabha MP, and he will have to vacate his seat if he wins the Lok Sabha election. The party has also fielded DK Suresh, brother of Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar, from Bengaluru Rural. He was the only Congress candidate to win from Karnataka in 2019.
The party has also fielded Tamradhwaj Sahu, former state cabinet minister, from Mahasamund constituency.
Focus On South
Of the 39 seats released in the first list, 28 are from South Indian states. These include seven seats from Karnataka, 16 from Kerala, four from Telangana and one from Lakshadweep. Congress is in power in Karnataka and Telangana, and holds a good base in Kerala as part of the United Democratic Front (UDF). The party has made a small change in its list in Kerala, shifting K Muraleedharan from Vadakara to Thrissur. The son of former CM K Karunakaran, Muraleedharan's sister Padmaja recently joined the BJP.
In Thrissur, the leader will be taking on actor-politician Suresh Gopi from the BJP.
Besides these states, the party’s first list includes candidates from Chhattisgarh, Meghalaya , Sikkim, Nagaland and Tripura.
Emphasis on Oppressed Groups
There are a total of 24 candidates in the first list who come from Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe, Other Backward Class (OBC) or minority categories. There are two Muslim candidates in the list, Mohd. Hamdulla Sayeed, from Lakshadweep and Shafi Parambil from Vadakara in Kerala. There are seven Christians: four from Kerala, two from Meghalaya and one from Nagaland.
Besides this, there are 15 candidates from the General Category.
In a push for younger blood, the party has fielded 12 candidates who are under the age of 50, while 8 candidates are between 50-60 years, 12 are in between 61-70 and 7 are from 71-76 age group.
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