Congress to Finalise Lok Sabha Candidates After Central Election Panel Meet on March 7

New Delhi: The top Congress leadership is scheduled to deliberate and finalise the candidates for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections during the party's central election committee's meeting on March 7.

Confirming the development, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh took to X and wrote, “The first meeting of @INCIndia Central Election Committee(CEC) that considers and decides on candidates for Lok Sabha polls is being held at 6pm on March 7th."

So far, the BJP holds the first mover advantage by releasing the first list of 195 candidates for the Lok Sabha elections whose date is yet to be announced by the election commission. 

The Congress sources said that party is likely to declare the first list shortly to enable its candidates to launch the poll campaign.  

Several states have already held meetings of their respective screening committees and have forwarded the list of candidates for seats in their states.

These will be finalised by the top party leadership in the central election committee meet. 

Chaired by party president Mallikarjun Kharge, the committee also includes former party chiefs Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, besides AICC general secretary K C Venugopal, Ambika Soni, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and T S Singhdeo, among others.