Congress Shuns Veteran Candidates: Mallikarjun Kharge, Kamal Nath, Digvijay Singh, and Four Ex-Chief Ministers to Sit Out This Election

GG News Bureau
New Delhi, 13th March. Bharat is preparing for the upcoming Lok Sabha Elections of 2024, which are set to happen in a few weeks. The dates for the Lok Sabha Elections of 2024 have not yet been disclosed, but the most recent reports indicate that they may do so in the next few days. The various political parties in Bharat have started preparing for the upcoming general elections. They have started poll campaigns, are preparing manifestos, and have started releasing their list of candidates broken down by constituency. This time, Congress is inclined to appoint experienced leaders.

While all of this is going on, there are rumors that Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge “wants to focus on the country and not just one constituency” and may not run in this year’s Lok Sabha Elections.

The Indian National Congress (INC) President, Mallikarjun Kharge, may abstain from the next Lok Sabha Elections in 2024. Although the majority of party supporters thought Kharge would lead the organization and run for office from Karnataka’s Gulbarga Constituency, the party veteran has other plans.

The Son-in-Law of Mallikarjun Kharge to Follow Him?

A report claims that Mallikarjun Kharge was at the top of the list of candidates for the Karnataka Gulbarga Constituency as of last week’s party discussions. It appears that Kharge might put his son-in-law Radhakrishnan Doddamani forward in his stead. Priyank Kharge, the son of Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, is a minister in the cabinet and is not interested in running in the upcoming elections. Kharge lost in 2019 despite winning this seat twice. Kharge might instead put forward his son-in-law for this reason.

“I’m 83 years old.”

When asked about rumors that prominent figures were choosing not to run in the Lok Sabha elections, Kharge responded, “It is incorrect that we are retreating. While you journalists retire at age 65, I am 83.”

Everyone goes and tells our party workers that they should fight, and if they say so, then I will fight, no doubt about it. He remarked, “Look, we have a list of ten people requesting the same seat, and sometimes we are at the front and sometimes we are in the back.”

In preparation for the Lok Sabha elections, the Central Election Committee (CEC) of the Congress convened a crucial meeting to discuss the names of candidates for states and one union territory.

At the same time, the names of seasoned Congressmen Kamal Nath and Digvijay Singh were also discussed in the Congress Election Campaign Committee meeting. However, it is thought that both leaders declined to run in the Lok Sabha elections, so there is no chance that they will run this time. Kamal Nath is currently the Congressman’s MLA for the Chhindwara assembly seat, and Digvijay Singh is the party’s MP in the Rajya Sabha.

Congress, which is getting ready for the Madhya Pradesh Lok Sabha elections, Approximately 63 seats from Gujarat (14), Rajasthan (13), MP (16), Assam (14) and Uttarakhand (5) were discussed in this second CEC meeting. During the meeting, it was decided that Digvijay and Kamal Nath would not run for the Madhya Pradesh Lok Sabha seats.  In addition, Jitu Patwari’s name has been discussed. The Congress high command will ultimately decide on Patwari’s name, but the party may challenge him from Indore.

The names of Fulsingh Baraiya from Bhind, Siddharth Kushwaha from Satna, Priyavrat Singh from Rajgarh (name suggested by Digvijay Singh), and Arun Yadav from Khandwa are among the Madhya Pradesh seats for which a consensus has been reached. Daman-Diu has approved Ketan Patel’s name.

Four former Chief Ministers are unwilling to run for office

Four former Chief­­ Ministers of the party, Ashok Gehlot, Kamal Nath, Digvijay Singh, and Harish Rawat, along with a former Deputy Chief Minister, Sachin Pilot, are reportedly not on the list for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. These political veterans themselves, according to sources, had no interest in running for office. Rather, other Congress leaders’ names were taken into consideration.

Four former Chief Ministers are unwilling to run for office

Four former Chief Ministers of the party, Ashok Gehlot, Kamal Nath, Digvijay Singh, and Harish Rawat, along with a former Deputy Chief Minister, Sachin Pilot, are reportedly not on the list for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. These seasoned politicians themselves reportedly had no interest in running for office. Rather, other leaders of Congress were given some thought.

All Uttarakhand seats have their names decided

In the beginning, former Chief Minister of Rajasthan Ashok Gehlot advocated for his son rather than himself, and the CEC accepted his Jalorean name. There has been no discussion about Gehlot’s home constituency of Jodhpur. Simultaneously, Nakul Nath, the MP from Chhindwara and son of Kamal Nath, has been authorized by the CEC to run for office again. Because of his poor health, former Chief Minister of Uttarakhand Harish Rawat was unwilling to run for office from Haridwar and preferred that his son, Virendra Rawat, be awarded the ticket. CEC has agreed on five seats in Uttarakhand.

Not even Pilots will run in elections

Another prominent figure, Sachin Pilot, the general secretary in-charge of Chhattisgarh, gave the CEC his word that he would concentrate on winning the four Lok Sabha seats from Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh in order to raise the total number of seats, rather than running for office himself. Though all 14 Assamese seats were up for discussion, it was unclear if Congress would be able to keep its alliance. There is uncertainty about where powerful speaker and current Congress deputy leader Gaurav Gogoi will run for office. His home constituency of Jorhat, where his late father Tarun Gogoi once served, is where he is vying for a ticket. Kaliabor, his former assembly constituency, has changed owing to delimitation.

There is now a list of 39 candidates

This is the CEC of the party’s second meeting. The second list of Congress candidates for the Lok Sabha elections is expected to be announced in the next day or two. Last week, the Congress released its initial list of 39 candidates, which featured the names of numerous prominent figures, such as former party President Rahul Gandhi. In the upcoming elections, Rahul Gandhi will run from Kerala’s Wayanad seat.