The Congress party has announced the names of three more candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections on Sunday. Including these 3 candidates, Congress has announced candidates for 316 seats. The party announced in the morning that Congress President Rahul Gandhi will contest from Amethi in Uttar Pradesh besides the Wayanad parliamentary seat in Kerala. After this, a list of two candidates was released. Ghulam Ahmad Mir from Jammu & Kashmir Anantnag seat and K Muralidharan have been nominated from Kerala Vadakara.

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The decision to cast Rahul Gandhi in Wayanad constituency is being seen as an attempt by the Congress to strengthen its base in South India, especially in Kerala. There are 20 Lok Sabha seats in Kerala. There are 39 Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu and 28 in Karnataka. Anantnag Lok Sabha seat is important in many ways. In 2014, the state's former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti had won this seat. However, the by-election for this seat has not been completed for two years. The atmosphere of unrest in the valley behind this is responsible.

Apart from Mehbooba Mufti, PDP president Mohammad Sayeed and senior Congress leader Mohammed Shafi Qureshi have also become MPs. This seat is the stronghold of PDP. In the assembly elections held in 2014, PDP won 11 out of 16 Assembly seats in Anantnag. Anantnag is the only seat in the country which will be voted in three phases.

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