Lok Sabha elections | Congress meets to discuss candidates for pending seats in Punjab and Bihar

Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge along with party Parliamentary Chairperson Sonia Gandhi and party leaders during the Central Election Committee (CEC) meeting. | Photo Credit: ANI

The central election committee (CEC) of the Congress met on April 21 to discuss the party’s Lok Sabha election candidates for Punjab and Bihar.

Though there is no official word on the meeting, sources indicated Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and former Congress chief Sonia Gandhi had a separate one-on-one meeting to discuss some of the contentious seats.

Several names were discussed for both States, and a final decision on key seats has been left to the Congress president to take. The next list of candidates will be announced soon, the sources cited above added.

The Congress is contesting all the 13 seats in Punjab but in Bihar, it will field candidates for nine seats as the party is part of the mahagathbandhan (grand alliance) with the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Left parties.

So far, the Congress has declared 285 candidates for the seven-phase parliamentary elections that got underway on April 19.