Congress 1st Lok Sabha List: Rahul Gandhi, Shashi Tharoor Lead With 39 Candidates

The first list of 39 candidates for the 2024 Lok Sabha election was announced by the Congress on Friday.

Prominent leaders featured in the list included Rahul Gandhi contesting from Wayanad, former Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel from Rajnandgaon, and Shashi Tharoor from Thiruvananthapuram.

Photo Credit: PTI

Congress 1st Lok Sabha List

Additionally, DK Suresh will be contesting from Bangalore Rural, K Sudhakaran from Kannur, and Congress general secretary KC Venugopal from Alapuzza. Among the candidates, 15 are from the general caste and 24 are from SC/ST/minority backgrounds. The judicious mix of candidates was carefully considered by the senior leadership.

The names were finalized after the 1st meeting of the central election committee held on Thursday under the leadership of President Mallikarjun Kharge. Rahul Gandhi attended the meeting through a Zoom call, as reported by Hindustan Times.

Congress MP Rahul Gandhi has been selected to once again contest from Wayanad, a seat he previously won in 2019. Among the 36 candidates announced, 15 hail from Kerala, six from Karnataka, six from Chhattisgarh, four from Telangana, two from Meghalaya, and one each from Nagaland and Sikkim.

Notably, one of the four candidates from Telangana is a woman. Patnam Sunitha Mahender Reddy, the wife of former minister Patnam Mahender Reddy of the BRS, will contest from the Chevella Lok Sabha seat. She is set to face off against ex-MP Konda Vishveshwar Reddy of the BJP in this constituency, as Times Of India reports.

Additionally, K Raghuveer Reddy, son of Congress veteran K Jana Reddy, has been announced as a candidate from the Nalgonda Lok Sabha constituency. This marks the second ticket to the family, with K Jaiveer Reddy, another son of Jana Reddy, contesting and emerging victorious in the Nagarjuna Sagar assembly seat in the 2023 election, as reported by Times Of India.

Mahbubabad (ST reserved) constituency will be contested by former union minister Porika Balram Naik, and Zahirabad constituency will be contested by Suresh Kumar Shetkar. Interestingly, the name of CWC member and AICC secretary Ch Vamshi Chand Reddy for the Mahbubnagar constituency has been kept on hold.