CPI's Annie Raja to contest from Wayanad; Rahul Gandhi seeks other options

New Delhi: The Communist Party of India (CPI), a major ally of the Left Democratic Front in Kerala, has announced the name of Annie Raja from the Wayanad seat for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

Party veteran and former MP Pannian Raveendran will contest from Thiruvananthapuram, another crucial seat represented by senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor.

The announcement was made by Party State Secretary Binoy Viswam at a press conference.

Former agriculture minister V S Sunil Kumar and the party's youth wing AIYF's leader C A Arunkumar will be fielded from Thrissur and Mavelikkara seats respectively, he added.

Annie Raja, the national executive member of CPI is testing electoral waters in Kerala for the first time.

Congress' Rahul Gandhi is currently the MP from Wayanad Lok Sabha seat.

According to sources, Gandhi will contest from two constituencies one from either Karnataka or Telangana and one from Uttar Pradesh in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.

The latest development comes amid the seat-sharing negotiations in Kerala, where the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) is putting pressure on Congress to give them 3 seats instead of 2 this time. IUML wants to contest from Wayanad because the majority of its voters are from the Muslim community.

Gandhi had won the Wayanad seat in 2019 with a margin of over 4 lakh votes defeating the CPI candidate PP Suneer.