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New Delhi, March 27
Top Congress leaders met here on Wednesday to discuss the party's Lok Sabha poll candidates in Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, Goa and Jharkhand, but did not finalise the names for the key constituencies of Amethi and Rae Bareli.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, former party chief Sonia Gandhi, party general secretary K C Venugopal and the members of its Central Election Committee (CEC), including senior leaders Ambika Soni, Madhusudan Mistry, Uttam Kumar Reddy and Salman Khurshid, were present at the meeting.
Sources said the candidates from six seats in Uttar Pradesh have been finalised. The Congress has already announced candidates for nine seats in the state.
Asked about Amethi and Rae Bareli, Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Ajai Rai said there was no discussion on the two seats.
“We had conveyed our views on these seats (Amethi and Rae Bareli) the last time. It is up to the leadership now to take a decision,” he said.
After the CEC meeting last week, Rai had said, “We have given our proposal that members of the Gandhi family should contest from Amethi and Rae Bareli as it is the demand of the people there. Now, it is up to the party leadership to decide on it.”
There is speculation that besides his declared seat of Wayanad in Kerala, Rahul Gandhi may also contest the Lok Sabha polls from Amethi, a seat he represented earlier, and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra from Rae Bareli, a seat that was previously held by her mother, Sonia Gandhi.
Both seats are considered bastions of the Gandhi family and the local units of the Congress have demanded that the two scions of the family should contest from there.
The Congress is in an alliance with the Samajwadi Party (SP) in Uttar Pradesh and contesting 17 Lok Sabha seats in the state.
The CEC meeting was held at the Congress headquarters here. The opposition party has already declared 194 candidates in several states and more names will be announced soon.
The Lok Sabha polls are scheduled to be held in seven phases starting April 19. Wednesday was the last day for filing nominations for the first phase of the election. The counting of votes will be taken up on June 4.
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