Congress' Kerala unit urges Rahul Gandhi to contest from Wayanad

Thiruvananthapuram: The Congress' Kerala unit said on Wednesday the party leadership has urged former AICC chief Rahul Gandhi to contest from Wayanad which he currently represents in the Lok Sabha in the forthcoming general elections.

Indicating that a final decision is yet to be taken on Gandhi's constituency, Leader of the Opposition in the state Assembly V D Satheesan said the party's national leadership and the central election committee would decide in this regard.

He said that the party's state unit strongly demanded the national leadership that Gandhi contest from Wayanad.

"The Kerala unit of the Congress party, not just the KPCC but the entire UDF, has demanded that he contest from Wayanad," Satheesan said.

When reporters pointed out that CPI's national leader Annie Raja would be contesting from the seat, he said though the Congress and the Left party were members of the INDIA alliance at the national level, it doesn't matter while contesting from Kerala.

"The political situation in Kerala is different. Everybody knows this," he said.

The LoP also pointed out that the CPI was with the Congress at the national level during the previous Lok Sabha polls also.

He also said the Congress, the DMK, the CPI and the CPI(M) had fought the previous general elections together in Tamil Nadu and even the two Marxist party MPs had sought votes with posters of Rahul Gandhi there.

"If such a thing had happened in Tamil Nadu, would the candidates of the CPI(M) do the same thing in Kerala?" he asked and said things were different here.

Gandhi won by a massive majority of over four lakh votes from Wayanad in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.