New Delhi: Congress on Friday released the first list of 43 candidates for the Gujarat assembly polls to be held in December this year. Arjun Modhwadia got a ticket from the Porbandar seat, while Rajya Sabha MP Amiben Yagnik will contest from Ghatlodia. Elections to the 182-member Gujarat Assembly will be held in two phases on December 1 and 5, while the votes will be counted on December 8. Earlier on Friday, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge chaired a meeting of the party’s central election committee (CEC) during which several candidates for the upcoming Gujarat Assembly polls were finalised. Former Congress president Sonia Gandhi joined the meeting online, while the rest of the participants attended it physically at the AICC headquarters here.
CEC members and party general secretaries Mukul Wasnik and K C Venugopal, besides Mohsina Kidwai, Girija Vyas and Ambika Soni, were among those present at the meeting.
All India Congress Committee (AICC) in-charge for Gujarat Raghu Sharma and the party’s state unit chief, Jagdish Thakor, were also in attendance.
The Congress is seeking to oust the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) from government in the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, where the saffron party has been in power for more than two decades.
(With PTI inputs)