The purpose of meeting of Congress Central Election Committee (CEC) on Sunday was to talk about the party’s candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections in Odisha and Bihar.
The candidates for the Odisha Assembly elections were also discussed by the CEC.
Sources claim that Tariq Anwar and Muhammad Jawed have been permitted to run for the Lok Sabha seats in Katihar and Kishanganj, respectively, in Bihar. Jawed is the Kishanganj MP currently in office.
According to sources, talks over the Bhagalpur seat were postponed.
Party leader Mallikarjun Kharge, former party chief Sonia Gandhi, MP for the Rajya Sabha, and other CEC members were present during the meeting.
Along with other INDIA bloc partners including the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), CPI, CP(M), and CPI(ML) Liberation, among others, the Congress is running for office in Bihar.
The RJD will be contesting for 26 seats under the seat-sharing arrangement. The CPI(ML) Liberation holds three seats, the CPI and CPI(M) have one apiece, and the Congress has nine members.
The Congress was granted seats in Kishanganj and the nearby town of Katihar. The party has been winning Kishanganj, the only Muslim-majority constituency in Bihar, for a while now. In Katihar, Tariq Anwar Anwar, who had won in 2014 on an NCP ticket, lost in 2019.
The 40 seats of Bihar will be up for election in the Lok Sabha in seven stages on April 19, 26, May 7, 13, 20, 25, and June 1, respectively. Vote counting will be done on June 4.
The Congress secured a solitary seat in the state at the 2019 Lok Sabha election, while the RJD and Left parties failed to secure any seats. After dominating the election, the BJP and Janata Dal (United) alliance formed the NDA and won 17 and 16 seats, respectively.
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