New Delhi, 23-03-2024: The Central Election Committee of the Congress Party, convened tonight, has approved the candidacies of Choudhary Lal Singh and Raman Bhalla for the Udhampur and Jammu Lok Sabha seats, respectively. This decision marks the release of the fourth list comprising 45 candidates for the impending Lok Sabha elections.
Choudhary Lal Singh, a former Member of Parliament and Minister, recently rejoined the Congress party in Delhi after a brief stint with the BJP. He will contest from the Kathua-Udhampur-Doda Parliamentary Constituency, facing strong competition from BJP’s incumbent MP and Union Minister Dr. Jitendra Singh. Additionally, Ghulam Nabi Azad’s party candidate, Ghulam Mohd Saroori, is also vying for the Udhampur-Doda seat. Lal Singh, having previously won the Udhampur Parliamentary seat twice on a Congress ticket in 2004 and 2009, switched allegiance to the BJP in 2014. He served as Health and Forest Minister in the BJP-PDP Government before forming his own party, the Dogra Swabhiman Sangthan Party, following the BJP’s withdrawal from the alliance in 2018.
Raman Bhalla, a former Housing and Revenue Minister and a prominent Congress figure, has been nominated for the Jammu Parliamentary Constituency. During the CEC meeting, the name of former Deputy Chief Minister Tara Chand was also deliberated, but ultimately, Raman Bhalla was selected given the open nature of the Lok Sabha seat in Jammu. Bhalla, who contested from the Jammu-Poonch Lok Sabha seat during the 2019 elections, was defeated by the BJP candidate, Jugal Kishore Sharma, and is now set to face him again as the alliance candidate of the INDIA block.
In its fourth list, the Congress has announced candidates for various states, including Jammu and Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Manipur, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Mizoram, Assam, and the Union Territory of Andaman and Nicobar. Veteran leader Digvijaya Singh will contest from Madhya Pradesh’s Rajgarh, while prominent names like Karti Chidambaram, Manickam Tagore, and S Jothimani have been nominated for seats in Tamil Nadu.
For Uttar Pradesh, where the party is in alliance with the Samajwadi Party, nine candidates have been announced, including Rai, Danish Ali, Imran Masood, and Alok Mishra. The Congress had previously declared 139 candidates across three lists for the seven-phase Lok Sabha polls commencing on April 19.
The CCEC meeting, chaired by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and attended by former Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and party general secretary K C Venugopal, discussed candidates for Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and Jammu and Kashmir. Speculation surrounds the potential candidacy of Rahul Gandhi from Amethi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra from Raebareli, traditionally strongholds of the Gandhi family.
Rahul Gandhi, a member of the CEC, was not present at the meeting.