Former Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and Deputy CM Sachin Pilot might not contest the upcoming Lok Sabha election this time. However, there are reports that Gehlot’s son Vaibhav could be fielded by the grand old party from Jalore Lok Sabha seat. This deliberation over this took place at Congress’ CEC meeting on Monday, HT reported citing party sources.

Besides, Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge will also not be in the fray this time as the party is of the view that the president should oversee the entire exercise rather than focus on his poll campaign. He was unanimously selected from Karnataka in the first CEC meet but this time his son-in-law, Radhakrishnan Doddamani, is likely to be nominated by him, NDTV reported citing sources. Kharge won twice from his bastion Gulbarga twice but lost in 2019. He was elected to Rajya Sabha and is now the leader of the Congress Party in the house.

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The Congress top brass meeting discussed candidates for Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Assam and Uttarakhand. The state party unit said Gehlot and Pilot should contest but the top brass said the duo has a larger role to play in the state rather than focusing on just their seats. Notably, former Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel will be contesting Lok Sabha polls this time.

Over 63 seats were discussed in Congress’ CEC meeting and a decision was made on 40 of them. The Congress party has so far named 39 candidates for the Lok Sabha elections in its first list including former party president Rahul Gandhi from Wayanad in Kerala.

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Party stalwarts-- Rahul Gandhi, Bhupesh Baghel, Shashi Tharoor, KC Venugopal-- were named in the first list.