Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, gearing up to file his nomination papers for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, held a roadshow in Kerala’s Wayanad, where he secured a massive margin of over four lakh votes in the 2019 Parliament polls. Thousands of party workers and supporters joined the roadshow, including his sister Priyanka Gandhi and other Congress leaders.
“Rahul Gandhi is contesting against Annie Raja, who is a well-known left leader nationally. She strongly called out the Bharatiya Janata Party’s government (BJP) in the Manipur issue and she was attacked by calling her anti-national. But what is Rahul Gandhi’s role in this? We can see Annie Raja’s presence in every protest that is happening in the country. But we can’t see Rahul Gandhi, a prominent leader in Congress, among such protesters,” Kerala’s Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan criticized.
Communist Party of India (CPI) Lok Sabha candidate from Wayanad, Annie Raja, also filed her nomination on the same day. The CPI is part of the ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led Left Democratic Front in Kerala. While the CPI and the Congress are partners in the opposition INDIA bloc, they are fierce contenders in Kerala, often pitting their strongest candidates against each other.
“Congress Party is claiming that they are leading the joint fight against the BJP. Then why is their biggest leader contesting elections from Kerala, where there is no fight with the BJP? He should fight from Uttar Pradesh, where the BJP has the biggest stronghold. If he defeats the BJP there, it will have a huge impact,” Shubhashini Ali, a leader of the CPI (M) that is part of the INDIA alliance questioned Rahul Gandhi’s candidature from Wayanad constituency against the Left Democratic Front (LDF) candidate Annie Raja.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Rahul Gandhi won from Wayanad with a huge margin, securing 64.94 per cent vote share. The Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) won 19 out of 20 seats in Kerala in the same election.