Cong CEC meets to finalise candidates for Chhattisgarh, Mizoram assembly polls

NEW DELHI: The Congress' Central Election Committee (CEC) held a meeting at the party headquarters here on Thursday to finalise the names of candidates for the upcoming assembly elections in Chhattisgarh and Mizoram.

The Congress is the only party that hasn't declared its candidates yet, even though the election dates have been announced.

The BJP has already announced its candidates for a number of assembly seats in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and former party chiefs Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi were present during the meeting. Senior Congress leaders, including general secretary K C Venugopal, and CEC members Ambika Soni, Madhusudan Mistry, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and T S Singh Deo also attended the meeting.

Later in a post on X, Kharge said, "People of Mizoram are vying for change. The Congress party has a historic connection with this beautiful state, encompassing peace, development and welfare." "We are confident that Mizoram shall strengthen the Congress party and give us a chance to serve, like we have (done) in the past. We discussed the political strategy for the ensuing Mizoram Assembly Elections in the Central Election Committee Meeting (CEC) today," he said.

In another post in Hindi, the Congress chief said, "In Chhattisgarh, we have written a new chapter in the 'justice system' in the last five years." He said the Congress worked for the welfare of villages, poor, farmers, youth, women and all other sections of society.

"Today, a meeting of the Central Election Committee was held regarding Chhattisgarh. In Chhattisgarh... 'Bharosa barkaraar, firse Congress sarkar'," Kharge said.

He also shared pictures of the CEC meeting.

Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel also attended the meeting.

Taking to X, Baghel said, "Today, I attended the important meeting of the Central Election Committee in Delhi in the presence of Honorable National President Shri Mallikarjun Kharge ji, our leaders Mrs. Sonia Gandhi ji and Shri Rahul Gandhi ji." Party sources said the CEC would meet again on Friday to finalise the names of candidates for Rajasthan as well as Madhya Pradesh.

Mizoram will to go elections on November 7 and Madhya Pradesh on November 17. Polling will be held in Chhattisgarh in two phases on November 7 and 17.

Rajasthan elections will be held on November 25 and Telangana will go to polls on November 30. The counting of votes for all five states would be taken up on December 3.