The Congress Central Election Committee’s (CEC) meeting was called on Sunday to discuss the party’s candidates for Bihar and Odisha in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.
The CEC also deliberated upon the candidates for the Odisha Assembly polls.
According to sources, the names of Mohammad Jawed and Tariq Anwar were cleared for Bihar’s Kishanganj and Katihar Lok Sabha seats, respectively. Jawed is the sitting MP from Kishanganj.
Meanwhile, discussions on the Bhagalpur seat were put on hold, sources added.
The meeting was attended by party chief Mallikarjun Kharge, Rajya Sabha MP and former party chief Sonia Gandhi, and other members of the CEC.
In Bihar, the Congress is contesting with other allies of the INDIA bloc, which mainly includes the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), CPI, CP(M) and CPI(ML) Liberation, among others.
As part of the seat-sharing formula, the RJD will be contesting 26 seats. The Congress has got nine seats, followed by three by the CPI(ML) Liberation, and one each by the CPI and CPI(M).
Among the seats given to the Congress are Kishanganj and adjoining Katihar. Kishanganj is Bihar’s lone Muslim-majority constituency, which the party has been winning for some time, while in Katihar, Tariq Anwar Anwar lost in 2019, having won in 2014 on an NCP ticket.
Lok Sabha elections for the 40 seats in Bihar will be held in seven phases on April 19, 26, May 7, 13, 20, 25, and June 1, respectively. Votes will be counted on June 4.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha election, the Congress won only one seat in the state while the RJD and Left parties drew a blank. The NDA alliance — BJP and Janata Dal (United) — swept the polls and won 17 and 16 seats, respectively.
Source Agencies
