Lok Sabha Polls 2024: Congress CEC to decide candidates on March 7, says Jairam Ramesh

The first meeting of Congress party's Central Election Committee(CEC) will be held at 6 pm on March 7, Thursday.

The meeting will decide candidates for upcoming Lok Sabha polls 2024, said Jairam Ramesh, Congress party's general secretary in-charge, communications in a post on X (formerly Twitter). 

Chaired by party president Mallikarjun Kharge, the committee also includes former party chiefs Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, besides AICC general secretary K C Venugopal, Ambika Soni, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and T S Singhdeo, among others.

The party is likely to declare its first list of candidates soon after the CEC meeting to enable the candidate to prepare for poll campaign. The Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) has already released its including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah. 

Among top Congress leaders, , the constituency won by her mother Sonia Gandhi five times until 2019.  With Rae Bareli, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will likely make her debut in electoral politics.

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Rahul Gandhi is also likely to contest from both , according to the sources, Rahul Gandhi had lost Amethi to Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Smriti Irani in the 2019 Lok Sabha Polls.

The Congress party is contesting 2024 Lok Sabha polls as part of INDIA bloc of Opposition parties. The BJP has kept 370+ seats target for the party in the upcoming polls and 400+ for the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). .

In were held in seven phases from April 11 to May 19 to elect the members of the 17th Lok Sabha. The result, declared on May 23, saw a landslide victory for the BJP under Prime Minister Narendra Modi with 303 seats in the 543-member House.