Indian General Elections 2024: Congress Releases Additional Candidate List, No Decision On Amethi, Raebareli

The party has announced its candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, pitting its Mumbai unit’s vice president against Union Minister Piyush Goyal. Among the fresh list of candidates, actor-turned-politician Raj Babbar will contest from the Gurgaon constituency, and former Union Minister Anand Sharma will contest from the Kangra constituency in Himachal Pradesh. Mr. Babbar will face BJP veteran and Union Minister Rao Inderjit Singh. In Haryana, the Congress has revealed the names of all nine candidates it is fielding, with the tenth seat being contested by its ally, the Aam Aadmi Party.

Meanwhile, in Himachal Pradesh, former MLA Satpal Raizada has been fielded from the Hamirpur constituency, where he will face off against Union Minister Anurag Thakur. The battle in Maharashtra is between the Congress-NCP (Sharad Pawar Faction)-Shiv Sena (Uddhav Thackeray faction) and the BJP-NCP (Ajit Pawar faction)-Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde faction). The party has nominated Bhushan Patil, the vice president of its Mumbai unit, to contest against Union Minister Piyush Goyal. There has been speculation about Congress candidates for Raebareli and Amethi, with concerns raised by the Amethi unit about a candidate from the “Gandhi parivar (family)”.

The last date for filing nominations for both seats is May 3, with the polls scheduled for May 20. It has been rumored that former president Rahul Gandhi may contest from Amethi again, as well as from Kerala’s Wayanad, like in the previous Lok Sabha elections. For Raebareli, the name doing the rounds is Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, whose electoral debut is expected to excite party workers. If these moves are made, they would be strategic, as Raebareli was the only seat the Congress won in Uttar Pradesh in 2019.