Senior Congress leader and the party's general secretary in charge of organisation, KC Venugopal on Friday let slip that the INDI alliance, the grand alliance of the opposition parties, has developed cracks.
While addressing a press conference at the All India Congress Committee (AICC) headquarters in New Delhi during which the first list of the party's candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections was released, Venugopal courted a question from a journalist regarding the future of the grand alliance in states like Assam and West Bengal. The Congress leader replied saying that the party is trying everything possible to move forward with the alliance.
Venugopal said, "We are trying maximum possible ways to go with INDIA alliance everywhere, but still there are little bit issues like in West Bengal and somewhere in Assam. We are trying to sort that out also."
"Congress party is very clear. We are here for reducing the BJP seats in a maximum level. We are ready to sacrifice anything for that, but we are expecting the same level of cooperation with other partners also. In some states, we need to move forward," he added.
During the press conference, Congress released its first list of candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. Former Congress President Rahul Gandhi will be contesting from Kerala's Wayanad, it was confirmed.
The Congress released a 39-member list of candidates that it will field in the Lok Sabha general elections to be held later this year. The 39 candidates who were named were from Chhattisgarh (6), Karnataka (7), Kerala (16), Lakshadweep (1), Meghalaya (2), Nagaland (1), Sikkim (1), Telangana (4), and Tripura (1).
According to the list, senior leader KC Venugopal, who chose to not contest the elections last time, will be fielded from Kerala's Alappuzha, while Shashi Tharoor will retain his Thiruvananthapuram seat from where he has been a three-time MP in the lower house.
Meanwhile, former Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel will be fielded by the Congress from the state's Rajnandgaon seat, the first list mentioned.
