The Indian National Congress (INC) on Friday has released its first list of candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, scheduled to take place in April-May 2024. Congress named 39 candidates in its first list, including party heavyweights such as Rahul Gandhi, Shashi Tharoor and KC Venugopal.

In its first list, the Congress party announced candidates for constituencies in Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Kerala, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Sikkim, Telangana, and Tripura. The list of candidates was cleared after the Congress Central Election Committee (CEC) cleared the same on Thursday after a crucial meeting.

After announcing the names, Congress General Secretary KC Venugopal said, “…Our priority is to win the maximum Lok Sabha seats to defeat PM Modi in this next elections. Our target is to win the maximum number of parliament seats for the Congress party…”

Rahul Gandhi has been fielded from Wayanad while Shashi Tharoor has been named from his home ground of Thiruvananthapuram.