Congress body clears 10 names for Maharashtra; 7 each for Raj, Guj

New Delhi: The Congress’s Central Election Committee (CEC) on Wednesday cleared names of 10 Lok Sabha candidates, including former Union minister Sushil Kumar Shinde’s daughter Praniti Shinde, for Maharashtra; and seven each for Gujarat and Rajasthan, leaders aware of developments said.
In the four meetings, the party’s top poll body has so far finalised 82 candidates across 13 states and two Union territories. It is yet to declare the names approved in its third and fourth CEC meetings. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has already announced 267 candidates.
According to a Congress functionary aware of the matter, besides Praniti Shinde, the CEC has also cleared names of Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaj, a descendant of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, from Kolhapur; and Daryapur MLA Balwant Wankhede from Amaravati.
In Rajasthan, the poll panel has approved the candidature of Sunil Sharma from Jaipur city. Sharma, who lost from Kisan Pole seat in the 2023 assembly poll, is a staunch loyalist of Sachin Pilot. Similarly, the party has approved its Anupgarh MLA Kuldeep Indora as the candidate for Ganganagar seat, the functionary added.
Two leaders present in the meeting pointed out that in most of the seats, only one name came up for consideration, enabling the Congress leaders to take quick decisions.
On Tuesday, the party’s top poll body CEC cleared 30 names across five states and two Union territories, including that of Lok Sabha floor leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury from his seat of Baharampur in West Bengal. It, however, could not decide on the candidate from Chandigarh and deferred the selection process for the remaining seats in Rajasthan, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh.
The CEC will again meet on Thursday to take up seat from Tamil Nadu, Bihar, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh.
In its first list, the Congress announced Rahul Gandhi as the candidate from Wayanad in Kerala, lawmaker Shashi Tharoor from Thiruvananthapuram and former Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel from Rajnandangaon. The party’s second list mentioned sitting MP Nakul Nath as the candidate from Chhindwara and fielded Vaibhav Gehlot, former CM Ashok Gehlot’s son, from Jalore. The Congress’s deputy leader in the Lok Sabha, Gaurav Gogoi, was named as the candidate from Jorhat.
Malkajgiri Chevella has been selected for Secunderabad seat of Telangana.