New Delhi [India], March 27 (ANI): Kawasi Lakhma, a Congress candidate from Chhattisgarh's Bastar, filed his nomination on Wednesday. Former Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel accompanied him during the same.

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Earlier on Monday, Kawasi Lakhma expressed gratitude to the party for selecting him as the candidate for the Bastar seat in the upcoming Lok Sabha Polls 2024.

The Congress nominated its senior tribal leader and former minister Kawasi Lakhma to contest the Bastar (ST) seat in Chhattisgarh, replacing its sitting MP Deepak Baij, who is also the president of the state Congress unit.

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Confident in the party's prospects, Lakhma said that the Congress would secure the highest number of seats in Chhattisgarh during the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

The Congress party released the fourth list on Saturday of 46 candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. The list contains candidates from seats in Assam, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Manipur, Mizoram, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and West Bengal.

The party also released the first list of 18 candidates for the upcoming Sikkim Assembly polls on Friday.

The election for 543 Lok Sabha seats will be held in seven phases starting April 19. Nearly 97 crore voters are eligible to cast votes in the general election. Various parties have declared their initial lists for the elections, which will conclude on June 1. The counting of votes will take place on June 4.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha election, the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) won 303 seats, while the Indian National Congress (INC) managed to get only 52 seats. In the 2014 Lok Sabha election, the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) won 282 seats, while the Indian National Congress (INC) managed to get only 44 seats. (ANI)

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