The Congress has announced the names of the candidates for the four Lok Sabha seats in Gujarat on the evening of Saturday April 13. Congress has announced to field Ramaji Thakor from Mehsana, Himmat Singh Patel from Ahmedabad East seat, Paresh Dhanani from Rajkot seat and Naishad Desai from Navsari seat as its candidates.
With this list, all the Congress candidates for 24 seats in Gujarat have been declared. Out of the total 26 Lok Sabha seats in Gujarat, two seats in Bharuch and Bhavnagar seats have been reserved by the Congress for Aam Aadmi Party candidates as per the agreement reached under the India Alliance.
The Congress has also announced its candidates for the by-elections to be held for five assembly seats in Gujarat. In which Dineshbhai Patel has declared his candidate for Vijapur seat, Rajubhai Odedara for Porbandar seat, Heerabhai Kansagra for Manavadar seat, Mahendra Singh Parmar for Khambhat assembly seat and Kanubhai Gohil for Waghodia seat.
Earlier on April 4, Congress announced the names of candidates for three seats in Gujarat. In which Ritvik Makwana from Surendranagar, Hirabhai Jotwa from Junagadh and Jashpal Singh Padhiar from Vadodara were announced.
It may be mentioned here that Gujarat is going to vote in a single phase on May 7 and now only a month is left.
The election results will be announced on June 4.
Who was ticketed earlier?
Earlier, the Congress announced the third list of candidates for the Lok Sabha elections. There were 57 names of candidates in this list. In the third list, the Congress announced the names of 11 candidates from Gujarat.
Congress leaders Sukhram Rathwa, Amit Chavda and Gulab Singh Chauhan got tickets in this list. In this list, Congress also announced candidates from Arunachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, West Bengal, Telangana and Pondicherry.
Congress gave ticket to Adhir Ranjan Chaudhary from Behrampur in West Bengal. Trinamool Congress fielded Yusuf Pathan as its candidate from this seat.
Who got ticket in second list?
While announcing the second list, Congress General Secretary K.C. Venugopal in a press conference called the election a battle between crony capitalists and the exploited and announced the names of 43 candidates.
According to the second list, the Congress has given tickets to Ganibhan Thakor from Banaskantha seat in Gujarat, Rohan Gupta from Ahmedabad East, Bharat Makwana from Ahmedabad West, Lalit Vasoya from Porbandar seat, Siddharth Chaudhary from Bardoli seat, Anant Patel from Valsad seat and Nitish Lalan from Kutch seat.
The names of 12 candidates from Assam, 7 from Gujarat, 10 from Madhya Pradesh, 10 from Rajasthan, 3 from Uttarakhand and one from Diu-Daman were included in this list.
Who got ticket in the first list?
In the first list, names of leaders including Rahul Gandhi and senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor were included.
As per the announcement, Rahul Gandhi has again been given ticket from Kerala's Wayanad and Shashi Tharoor from Thiruvananthapuram seat.
However, the list did not include the names of Congress candidates from any seats in Gujarat. In the first list, the Congress announced its candidates for 39 seats in Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Kerala, Lakshadweep, Meghalaya, Sikkim, Nagaland, Telangana and Tripura.
Apart from Rahul, former Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh Bhupesh Baghel and K. C. Big leaders like Venugopal have been included.
Bhupesh Baghel from Rajnandgaon seat of Chhattisgarh while K. C. Venugopal was fielded as a candidate from Alappuzha seat in Kerala. Out of these 39 Congress candidates, 24 belonged to SC, ST, OBC and minority communities.
It may be noted that a few days ago, the Communist Party of India (CPI) gave a ticket to a candidate named Annie Raja from the Wayanad seat. With the CPI fielding a candidate from the Wayanad seat, the contest has become interesting as it has become two-sided.
The BJP had announced the first list of candidates for the Lok Sabha elections on March 2. In this list, BJP announced the names of candidates for a total of 195 Lok Sabha seats, including 15 seats from Gujarat.
In Gujarat, the BJP has won all 26 seats in the last two Lok Sabha elections while the Congress has not got a single seat.
Currently, on one hand, Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Nyaya Yatra is in its final stages, on the other hand, the trend of one after another Congress leaders moving to BJP continues across the country, including Gujarat.
Confrontation between 'NDA' and 'India'
Generally, the Lok Sabha elections are held in the months of April-May and it is likely that the Lok Sabha elections in 2024 will also be held in these months.
It may be mentioned that the term of the 17th Lok Sabha will end on June 16, before which there is a strong possibility that most of the processes related to the Lok Sabha elections, including counting of votes, will be completed.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has expressed confidence for a third term, while the opposition has boasted that it is ready to defeat the BJP.
The main contest in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections is likely to be between the ruling BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and the opposition alliance 'India'.
Opposition parties like Congress, Aam Aadmi Party, DMK, RJD and Samajwadi Party are part of 'India' coalition. The Aam Aadmi Party has announced the names of its four candidates in Delhi and two candidates in Gujarat. While the Samajwadi Party has so far announced its candidates for 31 seats in Uttar Pradesh in its three lists. Hence it was believed that the Congress will also announce its list of candidates soon.
Performance of Congress in 2019 Lok Sabha Elections
In the last Lok Sabha elections, the Congress fielded its own candidates on a total of 423 seats while forming alliances with other parties on the remaining seats.
But in the 2019 elections, Congress won only 52 seats. Congress failed to secure the post of Leader of the Opposition in Parliament for the second consecutive election due to less than 10 percent of the seats.
In the 2019 elections, the total vote percentage for the Congress was 19.49 percent.
In states like Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana, Andhra Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Arunachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Delhi, Congress could not even open its account. Congress's performance in Lok Sabha Elections 2019 was its second worst ever.
Congress performance in Gujarat
Talking about the Lok Sabha elections, Congress has not won a single seat in Gujarat since the last two elections.
Finally, in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, the Congress won 11 seats in Gujarat. After that, Congress is continuously performing poorly in Gujarat.
Leaders like CJ Chavda who contested from Gandhinagar seat from Congress, Molubhai Kandoria who contested from Jamnagar seat, Dharmesh Patel who contested from Navsari seat have already joined BJP.
On the other hand, strong contenders like Manata Arjun Modhwadia and Ambarish Der have joined the BJP. Finally in 1980 Congress won 25 out of 26 seats in Gujarat which is considered the best performance of Congress during Lok Sabha elections in Gujarat.
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