Congress leader Rahul Gandhi advocates for unified INDIA Bloc in Haryana polls

NEW DELHI: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi explored the feasibility of contesting the polls as the INDIA bloc during the Congress’s Central Election Committee (CEC) meeting held to deliberate on ticket allocation for the upcoming Haryana Assembly elections, ANI reported quoting sources.

The meeting, which took place at the Congress Headquarters in New Delhi on Monday, saw Rahul Gandhi highlighting the importance of ensuring undivided votes for the alliance.

In response to Rahul Gandhi’s proposal, former Haryana CM and Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda pointed out the challenges in forming an alliance with AAP, as they are demanding more seats than the 3-4 that can be offered.

The sources also mentioned that Bhupinder Hooda will be contesting from the Garhi Sampla Kiloi constituency, while state president Udaybhan will be fielded from the Hodal constituency.

The meeting however did not discuss the potential candidatures of Vinesh Phogat, Kumari Selja, and Randeep Surjewala, who are Rajya Sabha MPs.

The CEC meeting focused on finalizing candidates for 49 out of the 90 seats in the state, while the remaining 41 seats are yet to be decided upon. AICC in-charge of Haryana, Deepak Babaria, said that the Congress party will announce the list of candidates soon, with 34 out of the 49 seats already declared and 15 sent for review.

He added, “Discussion on 49 seats was taken up and 34 of them have been declared. 15 seats have been sent for review. Out of the 34 cleared seats, 22 are MLA seats. The pending names will be cleared in the next 2-3 days. We will clarify about Vinesh Phogat also. The list would also be out within two days.”

Prior to this meeting, the Congress Central Election Committee convened at AICC to select candidates for the Haryana Assembly Polls. The meeting was presided over by Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, with Rahul Gandhi and other CEC members in attendance.

The Election Commission has scheduled the Haryana Assembly polls to be held in a single phase on October 5, with the counting of votes taking place on October 8, a revision from the earlier announced dates of October 1 and October 4, respectively.

Courtesy : TOI

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