With less than a month for assembly polls, Kharge chairs CEC for Rajasthan to finalise 105 candidates

New Delhi : With less than a month left for the crucial Rajasthan assembly elections, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Monday chaired the meeting of the Central Election Committee (CEC) to finalise the rest of the 105 candidates.

Besides Kharge, Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi, former party chief Rahul Gandhi, party general secretary (organization) KC Venugopal, senior party leaders Ambika Soni, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, in-charge Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, Screening Committee chairman Gaurav Gogoi, state unit chief Govind Singh Dotasara and many others participated in the meeting. 

The meeting comes a day after the Screening Committee discussed the candidates for several hours at the party’s war room in the national capital. 

According to party sources, many seats were discussed on Sunday evening for the assembly polls. 

The Congress has already announced 95 candidates out of 200 for Rajasthan. On October 26, the party had named 19 candidates in its third list.  

The Congress has earlier released two lists for Rajasthan with 33 and 43 candidates respectively on October 21 and 22.  

The grand old party released its third list on the day when the Enforcement Directorate (ED) carried out searches at over 11 locations including the premises of state unit chief Govind Singh Dotasara. The ED also summoned Ashok Gehlot’s son Vaibhav in connection with a FEMA case for questioning. 

The party has named most of the sitting MLAs in its three lists.  

Polling for the 200 member Rajasthan assembly has been rescheduled for November 25 and the counting of votes will take place on December 3.  

The Congress is eyeing a second consecutive term in Rajasthan and has launched several pro-people schemes in the desert state and also announced seven guarantees on Friday.