In the Wayanad parliamentary constituency, Congress Member of Parliament (MP) Rahul Gandhi is contesting Lok Sabha Elections against Annie Raja, a leader from the Communist Party of India (CPI), which is a key partner in the opposition INDIA bloc.
With Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Kerala state President K Surendran in the fray, the contest in the seat has become triangular. Wayanad will vote, along 19 other seats of Kerala, in the second phase of Lok Sabha Elections 2024 on Friday, April 26.
Amethi Uncertainty
Rahul Gandhi won the Wayanad seat by 431,000 votes – the highest margin in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls across Kerala. Rahul got 706,367 votes, as against 274,597 votes polled by LDF candidate PP Suneer. The BJP-led NDA had fielded BDJ (S) leader Tushar Vellapally, who secured 78,800 votes, about 7.25 per cent of the total votes polled.
Also Read: Lok Sabha elections 2024 phase 2 voting on April 26: Key candidates, full list of all constituencies going to polls
The contest also assumes significance amid uncertainty about whether Rahul Gandhi will contest from Amethi, his earlier seat in Uttar Pradesh, which he lost in 2019 to Union Minister Smriti Irani.
The Congress, which is contesting elections in UP in alliance with the SP, the INDIA bloc partner, is yet to announce candidates for Amethi and Rae Bareli seats. Rahul’s mother, Sonia Gandhi, who won the Rae Bareli seat in 2019, is now a Rajya Sabha member.
PM Modi’s Mission South
The contest in 2024 has become high-stakes due to PM Modi and BJP’s efforts to make inroads in the south, including Kerala.
The BJP candidate, K Surendran is a prominent leader from north Kerala who became the saffron party’s state president in 2020. In 2019, he contested the Lok Sabha elections from the Pathanamthitta seat but ended up third in the race.
Addressing a rally in Maharashtra earlier this week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that the ‘shahzada’ (Rahul Gandhi) will also lose from Wayanad seat this time.
Also Read: Lok Sabha Election 2024: Who is K Surendran, BJP’s pick against Rahul Gandhi in Wayanad?
In March, Surendran, said Rahul Gandhi will face the ‘same fate’ during Lok Sabha elections 2024 in the seat in Kerala as he met in Uttar Pradesh’s Amethi in the 2019 general elections.
LDF-Congress Fight
The third candidate, Annie Raja, is the wife of CPI general secretary D Raja. She is also general secretary in the party’s National Federation of Indian Women. The CPI is a partner of the ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led Left Democratic Front in Kerala.
In the past few weeks, Kerala Chief Minister and CPI leader Pinarayi Vijayan has been critical of the Congress party and Rahul Gandhi. Earlier this week, Vijayan called Rahul Gandhi a non-serious and immature politician.
In 2019, the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) won 19 out of 20 seats in Kerala. The Congress itself won 15 seats, while its allies, the Indian Union Muslim League, won two seats, the Revolutionary Socialist Party won one, and the Kerala Congress (M) won one seat. The Communist Party of India (Marxist) won one seat in Alappuzha.
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Published: 25 Apr 2024, 01:28 PM IST