Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge with party leaders Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and KC Venugopal during the Congress Election Committee meeting for the upcoming assembly elections, at the AICC Headquarters in New Delhi, Wednesday, Oct. 18, 2023.
PTI Photo
New Delhi: The Congress leadership on Wednesday discussed probable candidates for the upcoming Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh assembly elections with party chief Mallikarjun Kharge expressing confidence that the party would return to power in both the states.
The top Congress leadership held separate meetings for Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. While Rahul Gandhi participated in the Rajasthan CEC, he skipped the Madhya Pradesh meeting as he had to leave for Telangana, where he would participate in a road show.
Kharge said the party would stage a victory in Rajasthan again on the back of good governance in the state in the last five years.
The party's Central Election Committee, chaired by AICC chief Kharge, held a meeting to deliberate on the names of candidates for the November 25 polls in the desert state.
Kharge, former Congress presidents Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, AICC in-charge of state Sukhjinder Randhawa, Rajasthan Pradesh Congress Committee chief Govind Dotasra, general secretary organisation K C Venugopal, party's Rajasthan screening committee chief Gaurav Gogoi, among others, attended the meeting.
In the Madhya Pradesh CEC, state party chief Kamal Nath and AICC in-charge Randeep Surjewala attended the meeting.
In a post in Hindi on X, Kharge said, 'Savings, relief, growth, protection and upliftment, this is how Rajasthan changed due to good governance of Congress!' 'We are confident that the public will bless us again. Today an important meeting of the Central Election Committee was held on Rajasthan,' he said.
The screening committee has held discussions on the names of the candidates on all seats.
The Congress is looking to buck the revolving door trend in Rajasthan and retain power. In Madhya Pradesh, it is seeking to wrest back power from the BJP.
While polling for the Madhya Pradesh assembly would be held on November 17 and Rajasthan polls would take place on November 25, votes would be counted on December 3.