During the Congress Central Election Committee (CEC) meeting held on Monday at the party’s headquarters in New Delhi, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi discussed the possibility of contesting the upcoming Haryana Assembly elections as part of the INDIA bloc. According to sources, Gandhi emphasized the importance of ensuring that the alliance’s votes remain undivided.
In response, former Haryana Chief Minister and Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda stated that while they are willing to offer 3-4 seats to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the AAP’s demand for more seats makes forming an alliance challenging.
Sources also revealed that Bhupinder Hooda is expected to be a candidate for the Garhi Sampla Kiloi constituency, and state president Udaybhan for the Hodal constituency. However, the meeting did not address potential candidacies for Vinesh Phogat, Kumari Selja, or Randeep Surjewala.
The CEC discussed candidates for all 90 assembly seats in Haryana and finalized names for 49 of them, with the remaining 41 yet to be decided. AICC in-charge for Haryana, Deepak Babaria, announced that the Congress would soon release a complete list of candidates, with further reviews and clarifications expected in the coming days.
The meeting, chaired by Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge and attended by Rahul Gandhi and other CEC members, aimed to select candidates for the Haryana Assembly elections, which will take place in a single phase on October 5. The Election Commission of India recently revised the polling date from October 1 to October 5 and moved the vote count for both Jammu and Kashmir and Haryana from October 4 to October 8.
