A meeting of the Congress Central Election Committee is underway, following which the party is likely to release the first list of candidates for Rajasthan and the second list for Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. The meeting is being held at the party headquarters in Delhi, chaired by chief Mallikarjun Kharge.
Kharge, former Congress presidents Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, AICC in-charge of state Sukhjinder Randhawa, Rajasthan Pradesh Congress Committee chief Govind Dotasra, general secretary organisation K C Venugopal, party's Rajasthan screening committee chief Gaurav Gogoi, among others, attended the meeting. The screening committee has held discussions on the names of the candidates in all seats.
The Congress top brass also held separate meetings for Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. While Rahul Gandhi participated in the Rajasthan CEC, he skipped the Madhya Pradesh meeting as he had to leave for Telangana , where he would participate in a road show.
Kharge said the party would stage a victory in Rajasthan again on the back of good governance in the state in the last five years.
In the Madhya Pradesh CEC, state party chief Kamal Nath and AICC in-charge Randeep Surjewala attended the meeting.
In a post in Hindi on X, Kharge said, "Savings, relief, growth, protection and upliftment, this is how Rajasthan changed due to good governance of Congress!" "We are confident that the public will bless us again. Today an important meeting of the Central Election Committee was held on Rajasthan," he said.
The screening committee has held discussions on the names of the candidates on all seats.
The Congress is hoping to buck the revolving door trend in Rajasthan and retain power. In Madhya Pradesh, it is seeking to wrest back power from the BJP.
The 200-member Rajasthan Assembly will go to polls on November 25, Madhya Pradesh on November 17 and Chhattisgarh will vote in two phases on November 7 and 17. The results for all poll-bound states will be announced on December 3.
On Sunday, the Congress released its first list of 144 candidates for the Madhya Pradesh and fielded former chief minister and state Congress chief Kamal Nath from the Chhindwara seat. The party has repeated many of the sitting MLAs in the first list.
On the same day, it released the first list for Chhattisgarh and fielded CM Bhupesh Baghel from the Patan constituency while Deputy CM TS Singh Deo will be fighting from the Ambikapur seat.