Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi will contest the Lok Sabha polls from Kerala’s Wayanad again, the party announced on Friday as it released its first list of 39 candidates. Congress general secretary K C Venugopal will contest from Alappuzha (Kerala), former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel from Rajnandgaon, Jyotsna Mahant from Korba, Tamradhwaj Sahu from Mahasamund and Shashi Tharoor from Thiruvananthapuram.

Venugopal said the list has 15 general category candidates while 24 are from the SC, ST, OBC and minority communities. Congress Treasurer Ajay Maken said the list has a good mix of youth and experience.

The announcement came a day after the Congress’ Central Election Committee (CEC) finalised the names for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections after having a discussion on over 60 Lok Sabha seats from 11 States and Union Territories. The CEC meeting was chaired by party president Mallikarjun Kharge.

Discussions were held on Lok Sabha seats in Delhi, Karnataka, Kerala, Chhattisgarh, Telangana, Sikkim, Tripura, Nagaland, Manipur, Meghalaya and Lakshwadeep. “We are in election mode and on an aggressive path of campaigning with Rahul undertaking the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra which is in Gujarat,” Venugopal said.

“The Congress party is very clear: We are here to reduce BJP seats to the maximum extent possible. We are ready to sacrifice anything to reduce BJP seats. But we are expecting the same level of partnership from other partners also. In some states, we need to move forward,” Venugopal said.

Maken during the Press conference said the first list is a mix of both young, experienced candidates and leaders from the Youth Congress.

The Nyay Yatra will end on March 17 in Mumbai with a mammoth rally planned and Kharge is writing to all INDIA Bloc partners to attend that rally, he said.

Kharge, former party chief Sonia Gandhi and Venugopal, as well as other senior leaders who are part of the CEC, were present at the meeting.

There is speculation that Rahul may also contest from Amethi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra from RaeBareli, a seat which was previously held by her mother, Sonia. Both the seats are considered bastions of the Gandhi family and the local units of the Congress have demanded that the two scions of the Congress first family should contest from there. Rahul, who was previously an MP from Amethi, lost the seat in 2019 but won from Wayanad in Kerala. Ambika Soni, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, TS Singhdeo and Mohammad Jawaid are other members of the CEC.

“I am honoured that the Congress has given me an opportunity to defend my seat...I look forward to a fair and effective contest. In 15 years of politics, I never needed to spend one day of negative campaigning,” the sitting Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor said in his first reaction after the party named him again as a LS candidate.

The Congress said it would guarantee paid apprenticeships to every graduate under 25 if it wins the upcoming election, as it tries to tap into voter concerns over high unemployment, even among the well-educated.

“We are going to ensure your ‘first job’ of `1 lakh ($1,209) per year,” Rahul said on social media. “This historic plan of ours is a forever cure for the disease of unemployment,” he added.

Rahul, who is in the middle of a his second leg of Bharat Jodo Yatra exhorting young people to vote for Congress, said the party would enact a ‘Right to Apprentice Act’ guaranteeing a one-year apprenticeship in a Government or private institution, with the opportunity to continue in the job. “This revolutionary scheme will change the face of Indian industries and the destiny of the youth by closing the skill gap between industry and India’s workforce,” he said.