Congress poll panel clears Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Kharge’s son-in-law as Lok Sabha candidates

Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury among candidates cleared by party's central election committee for upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Congress leader and member from Baharampur in the outgoing Lok Sabha, is among the candidates whose names were cleared by the party’s central election committee (CEC) on Tuesday.

The CEC also cleared the name of Radhakrishnan D., the Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge’s son-in-law, as the party’s candidate for Gulbarga. Mr. Kharge had represented the seat in 2009 and 2014, but lost it in 2019.

A final decision on a candidate for the Chandigarh Lok Sabha seat has been put on hold as there are two former Union Ministers among the three contenders.

The CEC is headed by Mr. Kharge and includes top leaders, including former party chief Sonia Gandhi and Rajya Sabha MP K.C. Venugopal. Though there is no official word on the CEC’s deliberations, sources said that it has cleared candidates for 14 seats from Karnataka, and 12 seats from West Bengal in its third meeting.

In Karnataka, the candidatures of Rajiv Gowda from North Bengaluru, Mansoor Ali Khan from Bengaluru Central, and Sowmya Reddy from Bengaluru South have been cleared.

In West Bengal, Mr. Chowdhury will contest from his seat of Baharampur. The sitting MP from Malda South, Abu Hasem Khan Choudhury, will make way for his son Isha Khan Choudhury.

In Telangana, the panel cleared candidates for Chevella, Malkajgiri and Secunderabad seats.