Congress veterans play safe, stay out of second Lok Sabha candidate list, for states dominated by BJP

Khaleque became only the second sitting Congress MP to be denied renomination, after T N Prathapan from Kerala in the first list. Khaleque was seeking a ticket from the Dhubri seat, but the party fielded Samaguri MLA Rakibul Hussain from there.

The key takeaways from the list:

📌 Having announced the candidatures of former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, former Chhattisgarh Home Minister Tamradwaj Sahu and AICC general secretary (organisation) and Rajya Sabha MP K C Venugopal in the first list of candidates, the Congress central leadership had sent a signal that senior leaders will have to contest elections.

But, sources said, this time, several senior leaders expressed their reluctance to enter the fray, facing the prospect of contesting from seats in the Hindi heartland, where the BJP continues to remain strong as the recent Assembly elections show.

For example, the party was keen that former Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot contest, but he was not keen, forcing the party to field his son Vaibhav again. In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Vaibhav lost from Jodhpur to Union minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat. On Tuesday, Vaibhav was fielded again, but surprisingly from Jalore. It is a tough seat for the Congress, with the BJP having won it the last four times; and in 2019, with 56.76% of the votes.

Senior leaders Sachin Pilot and Bhanwar Jitendra Singh are also unlikely to contest, as they are AICC general secretaries in-charge of states. Those who have expressed reluctance to contest reportedly include Delhi Congress president Arvinder Singh Lovely, former Gujarat Congress chief Bharatsinh Solanki and former Uttarakhand CM Harish Rawat.

Asked whether senior party leaders were shying away from contesting, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, a Rajya Sabha MP, said that if workers asked him to fight, he might, but that age was a constraining factor.

“It is wrong that we are backing out. I am 83, you (journalists) retire at 65… So I am 83… If my workers say, then I will definitely fight,” Kharge told reporters, adding that in a party, different people played different roles. “Sometimes we are at the back, sometimes we are at the forefront, we also have a list of 10 people asking for the same seat,” he said.

📌 The BJP’s attacks on the Congress of “parivaarvad” notwithstanding, at least four scions figure in the list. Apart from Vaibhav, Gaurav Gogoi, a two-time MP and the son of late Assam veteran Congress leader Tarun Gogoi; Nakul Nath, the son of another veteran, Kamal Nath, and the sitting MP from Chhindwara; Bharat Makwana, the son of former Union minister Yogendra Makwana, who has been fielded from Ahmedabad West (SC) seat; and Brijender Ola, the son of late Congress veteran Shishram Ola, fielded from Jhunjhunu, figure in the list.

📌 Venugopal said the second list had 13 candidates from OBC communities, 10 from Scheduled Castes, nine from Scheduled Tribes and two Muslims. Of the 43 seats announced by the party, 18 are SC/ST reserved seats, meaning the party has fielded one SC/ST candidate from a general category constituency.

Twenty-five of the candidates are below the age of 25, eight in the age-bracket of 51-60 and 10 between 61 and 72. Four of the 43 candidates announced are women, including Assam Mahila Congress president Mira Borthakur, fielded from Guwahati.

📌 Several leaders who joined the Congress from other parties have got tickets. For example, Garjan Mashhary, fielded from the Kokrajhar (ST) seat, who was the chief convenor of the Peoples’ Joint Action Committee for Bodoland Movement and joined the Congress in 2021.

Madhab Rajbanshi, a two-time former MP, fielded from Darrang-Udalguri, used to be in the Congress but had switched to the AGP in 2014 on being denied a ticket. Later, he returned to the party.

Hafiz Rashid Ahmed Choudhary, who has been fielded from Karimganj, joined the Congress last year. He was the founder working president of the AIUDF. From another seat in Assam, Diphu (ST), former BJP MLA Joyram Engleng, who joined the Congress last year, has been fielded.

In Rajasthan, the party has fielded Rahul Kaswan from the Churu seat that he had won for the BJP in 2019. Kaswan joined the Congress only on Monday. The Congress’s Udaipur candidate is Tarachand Meena, a high-ranking bureaucrat who recently took voluntary retirement. He is said to be close to Gehlot.

In Madhya Pradesh, the ticket for Khargone (ST) seat has gone to Porlal Kharte, a tribal social worker who joined the Congress last year.

📌 The list has many sitting MLAs who won in the recent Assembly elections. In Madhya Pradesh, they include Bhander MLA Phool Singh Baraiya, from Bhind (SC) seat; Satna MLA Siddharth Kushwaha from Satna seat; and Dindori MLA Omkar Singh Markam from Mandla (ST) seat.

In Gujarat, the Congress has fielded Vav MLA Geniben Thakor from Banaskantha seat and Vansda MLA Anantbhai Patel from the Valsad seat. One of the Congress’s top leaders in north Gujarat, Geniben Thakor had come to the limelight in the 2017 Assembly polls after she defeated sitting minister and senior BJP leader Shankar Chaudhary in her second attempt. She won again in 2022.

In Rajasthan, it has fielded Mundawar MLA Lalit Yadav from the Alwar seat against Union minister Bhupender Yadav, and Deoli-Uniara MLA Harish Chandra Meena from Tonk-Sawai Madhopur.

📌 Those who contested but lost the recent Assembly elections also figure in the list, including Lalit Vasoya from Porbandar seat in Gujarat, CWC member Kamaleshwar Patel from Sidhi seat in Madhya Pradesh, former Rajasthan Minister Govind Ram Meghwal from Bikaner (SC) seat and and Udaylal Anjana from Chittorgarh seat.

In Uttarakhand, the Congress has fielded Jot Singh Gunsola, a two-time MLA from Mussoorie, from Tehri Garhwal. Pradeep Tamta, a former MP from Almora, was fielded after having lost to the BJP’s Ajay Tamta from the same seat in 2019. The Congress’s third candidate declared from Uttarakhand, Ganesh Godiyal, is also a former MLA (Srinagar seat) and was the state Congress president.

A surprise inclusion in the Congress list for Gujarat is Rohan Gupta, who was removed as social media head in June 2022.

In Assam, the Congress has now named candidates for 12 of the 14 Lok Sabha seats. It means that Dibrugarh is the only seat that will be contested by an alliance partner of the Congress in Assam, going to Lurinjyoti Gogoi of the Asom Jatiya Parishad, though the Congress is part of a 15-party front including regional parties.

The list also puts to an end questions about who would contest from the Nagaon seat, with the Congress’s sitting MP, Pradyut Bordoloi, re-fielded.

While Abdul Khaleque was dropped, the reason stems from delimitation, resulting in demographic changes in his previous Barpeta seat, reducing the number of minority voters there. The Dhubri seat he wanted to contest from has gone to Rakibul Hussain, the Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Assam Assembly, who will take on AIUDF chief Badruddin Ajmal.