 "Sons of 3 former CMs among 43 on Cong's second list for Lok Sabha polls")
The Congress on Tuesday announced its second list of 43 Lok Sabha candidates across four states and one Union Territory (UT), which includes sons of three former chief ministers (CMs) — Gaurav Gogoi, Nakul Nath, and Vaibhav Gehlot.
The Congress released its first list of 39 candidates last week. The second list included 32 candidates from Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs), and Other Backward Classes (OBCs) to underscore its commitment to social justice. Of the 43, the Congress won three seats in 2019.
The Congress’ intent has been to field its front-ranking leaders for the Lok Sabha polls. Gogoi, son of former Assam CM Tarun Kumar Gogoi, will contest from Assam’s Jorhat, instead of the Kaliabor seat that he won in 2014 and 2019.
Nakul Nath, son of former Madhya Pradesh CM Kamal Nath, will contest from his seat of Chhindwara.
Vaibhav Gehlot, son of former Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot, will contest from Rajasthan’s Jalore, a seat the Congress last won in 1999. Vaibhav lost the 2019 Lok Sabha poll from Jodhpur to Union Minister Gajendra Shekhawat.
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From Churu, the Congress has fielded Rahul Kaswan, who was elected to the Lok Sabha as a BJP candidate in 2014 and 2019 but joined the Congress this week. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has fielded Devendra Jhajharia, a Paralympic gold medalist, from Churu.
Of the 43 candidates announced, 13 are OBCs, 10 SCs, nine STs, and one minority. The Congress announced its candidates on 12 of Assam’s 14 seats, including on two of its sitting seats. It announced seven of its candidates in Gujarat, 10 each in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, three from Uttarakhand, and one from the UT of Daman and Diu.
Congress General Secretary (organisation) K C Venugopal said the 2024 Lok Sabha battle was one between the rich, which the BJP represented, and the poor, for whom the Congress is fighting. He said the Congress governments in Karnataka and Telangana had fulfilled the ‘guarantees’ they had promised to the poor, farmers, youth, and worked towards ensuring social justice.
Earlier, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge launched the party’s six poll promises for STs. He said a Congress government would set up a national mission for the effective implementation of the Forest Rights Act, withdraw all amendments to the Forest Conservation and Land Acquisition Acts made since 2014, notify all habitations where the STs are the largest social group as scheduled areas, extend the legal guarantee of minimum support price to minor forest produce, and re-introduce the Scheduled Caste Plan and Tribal Sub-plan and make it enforceable.