Bhupesh Baghel, Shashi Tharoor, KC Venugopal among Congress candidates for 2024 polls. Check full list

Congress Lok Sabha 2024 candidates list: The Congress on Friday released its first list of 39 candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

The party announced the candidates for Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Kerala, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Sikkim, Telangana, and Tripura.

Of the 39 candidates announced, 15 are from the general caste and 24 are from SC/ST/minorities.

"...Our priority is to win the maximum Lok Sabha seats to defeat PM Modi in this next elections. Our target is to win the maximum number of parliament seats for the Congress party..." Congress General Secretary KC Venugopal said after the announcement of the names.

The names of the candidates for the Lok Sabha elections were cleared during the Congress party's Central Election Committee meeting held in New Delhi on Thursday.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, former party chief Sonia Gandhi, and general secretary KC Venugopal were present during the meeting. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi joined the meeting via Zoom.

The suspense over whether Rahul Gandhi will contest a second seat from Uttar Pradesh's Amethi remains. The Congress has said that the remaining states will be taken up for discussion in the next meetings.

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The party will hold its second Election Committee meeting on March 11 to discuss the names of candidates in the remaining state for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.

Check the full list of Congress candidates for Lok Sabha elections:

Chhattisgarh

Jangrir-Champa (SC): Shivkumar Dahariya

Korba: Jyotsana Mahant

Rajnandgaon: Bhupesh Baghel

Durg: Rajendra Sahu

Raipur: Vikas Upadhayay

Mahasamund: Tamrdhwaj Sahu

Karnataka

Bijapur (SC): HR Algur

Haveri: Anandaswamy Gaddadevara Math

Shivamogga: Geetha Shivarajkumar

Hassan: Shreyas Patel

Tumkur: SP Muddahanumegowda

Mandya: Venkataramegowda (Star Chandru)

Bangalore Rural: DK Suresh

Kerala

Kasaragod: Rajmohan Unnithan

Kannur: K Sudhakaran

Vadakara: Shafi Parambil

Wayanad: Rahul Gandhi

Kozhikode: MK Raghavan

Palakkad: VK Sreekandan

Alathur (SC): Ramya Haridas

Thrissur: K Muraleedharan

Chalakudy: Benny Behanan

Ernakulam: Hibi Eden

Idukki: Dean Kuriakose

Alappuzha: KC Venugopal

Mavelikkara (SC): K Suresh

Pathanamthitta: Anto Antony

Attingal: Adoor Prakash

Thiruvananthapuram: Shashi Tharoor

Lakshadweep

Lakshadweep (ST): Mohd Hamdullaha Sayeed

Meghalaya

Shillong (ST): Vincent H Pala

Tura (ST): Saleng A Sangma

Nagaland

Nagaland: S Supongmeren Jamir

Sikkim

Sikkim: Gopal Chettri

Telangana

Zahirabad: Suresh Kumar Shetkar

Nalgonda: Raghuveer Kunduru

Mahbubnagar: Challa Vamshi Chand Reddy

Mahabubabad (ST): Balram Naik Porika

Tripura

Tripura West: Ashish Kumar Saha