The Congress will finalise the list of probable candidates it plans to field in five out of the six Lok Sabha constituencies in Mumbai by January 24, with party committees in each constituency directed to hand over their list at the earliest.
Mumbai Congress president Sanjay Nirupam said the names of interested candidates from each of the five constituencies are being discussed at the district level. “The names will be sent to the State level parliamentary election committee of the party and then to the All India Congress Committee. The entire process will get over by January 28,” he said.
According to directions issued by the party to its leadership across the country, the names need to reach Delhi by January 31. One seat may have at the most three names of interested candidates, and the central leadership will decide which one to field based on the ground report.
The candidature for the Mumbai LS seats has become a topic of hot debate within the party. A recent Mumbai Congress meeting was marked with uproar over the selection of candidates. The party will contest five of the six seats in Mumbai, while the Nationalist Congress Party will contest the Mumbai North East constituency, currently held by the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Kirit Somaiya.
Among the seats to be contested by the Congress, Mumbai South, held by Shiv Sena’s Arvind Sawant, seems to have no candidate other than former Union minister Milind Deora. Candidates for the other four are far from being settled.
With former MP Priya Dutt saying she will not contest the election, the party has received applications for the Mumbai North Central constituency, which she contested the last time.
After the death of former MP and Union Minister Gurudas Kamat, Congress has no fixed candidate for the Mumbai North West seat. Mr. Nirupam and former MLA Kripashankar Singh are said to be interested in contesting from the seat, which was won by Sena’s Gajanan Kirtikar in 2014.
Mumbai South Central, at present held by Sena’s Rahul Shewale, too has no definite candidate. Varsha Gaikwad, daughter of former MP Eknath Gaikwad and at present an MLA from Dharavi, and former Mumbai University Vice-Chancellor Dr. Bhalchandra Munagekar are said to be in the running.
In Mumbai North, the party is likely to field a candidate belonging to the Gujarati community.
