Days after BJP released its list of candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, the Congress also announced its first list of 39 candidates on Friday. The list includes big names like Shashi Tharoor, Rahul Gandhi and Bhupesh Baghel.
Shashi Tharoor will again contest from Thiruvananthapuram for the straight fourth time, while Rahul Gandhi will contest from Wayanad and it is still not clear whether he will also contest from Amethi and Bhupesh Baghel will contest from Chhattisgarh’s Rajnandgaon.
The other big names from the Congress’s first list include party General Secretary KC Venugopal, who will be fielded from Kerala Alappuzha and Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar’s brother DK Suresh, who will be contesting from Bengaluru Rural.
The list includes names mostly for southern and northeastern states excepting Chhatisgarh and Union Territory of Lakshadweep.
The focus is kept in south because it is the region where BJP is relatively weak and also Congress is in power in Telangana and Karnataka.
