Top Guns In Congress's 1st Lok Sabha Candidates' List: Rahul Gandhi, Shashi Tharoor, Bhupesh Baghel

Rahul Gandhi heads the initial list of Congress candidates for Lok Sabha elections released on Friday. The grand old party declared that it is going into the parliamentary contest to seriously dent BJP and is willing to go out of its way to court allies while urging the latter to reciprocate. Rahul Gandhi will run from his current Wayanad constituency in Kerala. (Photo credit: AFP)

Congress general secretary KC Venugopal will contest the upcoming elections from Alappuzha, Kerela. After the list was released the Congress leader said "We had the first central election committee regarding the parliament candidates. We finalised seats from Kerala, Karnataka, Telangana, Chhattisgarh, Delhi and Lakshadweep. The procedure is going on; a formal announcement will be made very soon." (Photo credit: PTI)

Former Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel has been fielded from the Rajnandgaon constituency in Chhattisgarh. He thanked the party's high command and said that the fielded candidates would live up to the trust shown by the party. "I thank the Party High Command for having faith in me. We will live up to the trust shown in all of us. It is a good list of candidates", Baghel told said. (Photo credit: ANI)

Shashi Tharoor, expressed gratitude to the grand old party for granting him the chance to contest once again for his seat in Kerala's Thiruvananthapuram, which he has successfully retained for three consecutive terms. He further said that the "BJP is going to find it very tough to even repeat the 303 they had". MoS Rajeev Chandrasekhar will be contesting against Congress leader Shashi Tharoor in Thiruvananthapuram. (Photo credit: ANI)

Former chief minister Vincent H Pala will contest from the Shillong (ST) seat. He took to X (formerly Twitter) to thank the party saying, " I am grateful to the Congress Party for nominating me once again as a candidate from 1- Shillong parliamentary seat & Mr Saleng A. Sangma 2- Tura Parliamentary seat. " (Photo credit: Agencies)

K Muraleedharan, Congress MP and son of party stalwart and former Kerala chief minister K Karunakaran, on Friday said that his father's legacy is an "asset" of the grand old party and "would not be handed over to the BJP". Muraleedharan, is contesting against actor-turned politician Suresh Gopi and LDF candidate V S Sunil Kumar in Thrissur. ​ "They (BJP) will not be allowed to touch ground in Kerala," he declared. (Photo credit: Agencies)

Jyotsana Mahant, a sitting MP, will contest from her present Korba constituency. She is married to senior Congress leader and former Union minister Charan Das Mahant, who is now the leader of opposition in the state assembly. After the announcement she told reporters, "I don't think of it as a challenge. I am a common person who will fight in the elections based on the works that were done by our government." (Photo credit: ANI)