Capping all speculations, the Congress will announce the next list of candidates for the Lok Sabha elections, including UP's Amethi and Raebareli, soon.
"Within one or two days...", Venugopal told reporters when asked about the new Congress list. His statement comes as the party's Central Election Committee (CEC) met on Saturday to decide on candidates for highly anticipated seats in Uttar Pradesh--Raebareli and Amethi.
The formal announcement is likely to be made by Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge.
Speculations were rife that the party would likely field Rahul Gandhi from Amethi and Priyanka Gandhi from Rae Bareli. While Rahul had contested from Amethi four times, he lost to BJP's Smriti Iran in 2019.
As for Raebareli, Sonia Gandhi had represented the seat in 2009, 2014 and 2019. She vacated the seat this time as she went to Rajya Sabha from Rajasthan, triggering rumours that the Congress might field Priyanka Gandhi Vadra from the seat. If that is the case, it will be her debut in electoral politics. Though she had actively campaigned for the Congress for years, Priyanka has never contested any elections.
The BJP is yet to announce its candidate for Raebareli though there were unconfirmed reports that it approached Varun Gandhi to contest from Raebareli. Varun is said to have refused the offer.
Meanwhile, the Uttar Pradesh Congress leaders on Saturday urged the top party leadership to field Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra from Amethi and Raebareli.
AICC in-charge of party Affairs in Uttar Pradesh Avinash Pandey and CLP leader in the state Aradhana Mishra urged Kharge and Sonia Gandhi to give tickets to both Rahul and Priyanka from the Uttar Pradesh seats. The suggestion was supported by various members but the decision was left to the top leadership, PTI quoted sources.
The Lok Sabha candidates for the remaining five seats in Punjab were also discussed during the meeting of the CEC. However, a consensus could not be reached on Punjab, following which it was decided to hold another CEC soon.
The party will also soon announce its decision for the Gurugram Lok Sabha seat and the choice has narrowed down to two candidates
