The Congress Central Election Committee convened a meeting on Sunday to finalize the party's candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls in Bihar and Odisha, as well as for the Odisha Assembly elections.
During the meeting, the committee approved the candidacies of Mohammad Jawed and Tariq Anwar for the Kishanganj and Katihar Lok Sabha seats in Bihar, respectively. Mohammad Jawed, the incumbent MP from Kishanganj, and Tariq Anwar are set to contest from these constituencies. However, discussions regarding the Bhagalpur seat were deferred for further consideration.
The meeting was attended by key members of the party, including party chief Mallikarjun Kharge, former party chief Sonia Gandhi, and other prominent leaders.
In Bihar, the Congress is contesting in alliance with other members of the INDIA bloc, which includes the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), CPI, CP(M), and CPI(ML) Liberation, among others. Under the seat-sharing arrangement, the RJD will contest 26 seats, while the Congress has been allocated nine seats.
The Congress's allocation includes Kishanganj and Katihar, with Kishanganj being Bihar's sole Muslim-majority constituency, traditionally won by the party. Tariq Anwar, who previously won the Katihar seat in 2014 on an NCP ticket, will now contest from there as a Congress candidate.
The Lok Sabha elections for Bihar's 40 seats will be conducted in seven phases on April 19, 26, May 7, 13, 20, 25, and June 1. Vote counting will take place on June 4.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the Congress secured only one seat in Bihar, while the NDA alliance, comprising the BJP and Janata Dal (United), emerged victorious by winning 17 and 16 seats, respectively.
