Lok Sabha election LIVE Updates | Congress candidates from Punjab, Haryana, Bihar and Delhi to be decided today

April 13, 2024 12:28 am | Updated 12:28 am IST

Top Congress leaders will decide on the party candidates from Punjab, Haryana, Bihar and Delhi at a meeting of the central election committee on April 13.

The central election committee chaired by party chief Mallikarjun Kharge is likely to meet at 4 p.m. on Saturday.

Also read: Lok Sabha election 2024 updates - April 12

AICC in-charge for Haryana and Delhi, Deepak Babaria, said after the screening committee for Haryana that their discussions are over and the candidates on all nine Lok Sabha seats were discussed.

“It will be a balanced list, which will represent all sections including women and youth. As the Congress party works with inclusiveness, the party’s list will be all inclusive and we feel that we will win all the 10 seats,” he told reporters after the meeting.

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Earlier on April 12, while holding an election rally in the Udhampur-Doda constituency in Jammu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi focussed a spotlight on the promise to restore Statehood and hold Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir. He did not offer any concrete timeline for the restoration of Statehood. Instead, he extolled the positive impact of the abrogation of Article 370 and targeted the Opposition INDIA bloc’s leaders for their “Mughal mindset”.

His statement comes at a time when Jammu voters, especially in Hindu-majority areas, have started growing resentful of the downgrading of J&K into a Union Territory and the failure to hold Assembly elections.

Also read | Kashmiri migrants in Jammu, Udhampur no longer required to fill ‘Form M’ to vote

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi while addressing his first election rally in Tamil Nadu’ Palayamkottai exuded confidence that the INDIA bloc will win ‘ideological battle’ between the INDIA bloc and the BJP for saving Indian Constitution, democracy and pluralism.

He said the INDIA bloc was fighting for freedom and equality while the BJP-led combine and Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government was backing the ideals of the RSS. While the INDIA bloc believed in pluralistic nation with many different languages and varied cultures, BJP was professing its theory of one nation, one language, one culture and one leader. But, for the INDIA bloc, all are equal for which the ideological battle is on.