NEW DELHI: Annie Raja’s candidature from Wayanad in Kerala has put Rahul Gandhi in trouble. Annie is the wife of CPI Secretary D. Raja. Despite being a core member of the India block, CPI’s announcement comes as a blow to the Congress. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is an MP from this seat and he is preparing to return again.
Congress has refrained from commenting for the time being.CPI candidate Comrade Annie Raja is known for playing an important role in the ‘Women’s Movement’. Now she will be the candidate on behalf of the entire LDF.
Rahul Gandhi will be under compulsion to either eschew a contest from Wayanad or risk his political career. If the CPI insists that its candidate must be in the fray, Rahul Gandhi’s fate hangs fire. For, the CPI is partner in the INDIA Bloc led by the Congress which cannot lose the CPI from the bloc. So, he may have to yield ground there. If he demonstrates bravado, even the Congress leaders may not be forthcoming to assert that Wayanad will give him a sure shot victory.
CPI, the second-largest coalition partner in Kerala’s ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF), announced Anni Raja will be competing from the seat. Despite being a core member of the INDIA bloc, CPI’s announcement came as a shock to Congress which had been projecting Gandhi to make a return to Lok Sabha from the same seat.
In last election (2019) Lok Sabha elections were contested by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi from Amethi in UP and Wayanad in Kerala. Rahul Gandhi had lost from Amethi to sitting Union Minister and BJP leader Smriti Irani, but defeated CPI candidate PP Suneer from Wayanad by a margin of over 4 lakh votes.This time the general elections are different from the previous ones because CPI and Congress are part of the opposition alliance ‘India’ united against BJP. There is no agreement between both the parties regarding seat sharing in Kerala.
After the CPI declared party woman leader Annie Raja as its candidate for Wayanad, CPI(M) leader Brinda Karat said sitting Wayanad MP Rahul Gandhi and his party should think about the Wayanad seat. . She said that Rahul Gandhi and Congress need to think. She says that her fight is against BJP. Karat said, “In Kerala, if you fight against the Left, what message are you giving? So he needs to think again about his seat.”
Annie Raja said, “CPI, under the leadership of LDF alliance has been contesting from four seats – Wayanad, Thiruvananthapuram, Thrissur and Mavelikkara for a long time. At this time also the party announced candidates for these four seats.” She was further asked what would happen if Congress gives ticket to Rahul Gandhi again from Wayanad? Annie Raja said, “In the year 2019 also we had fielded a candidate against Rahul Gandhi. We have been contesting elections from Wayanad seat for a long time.” Rajya Sabha MP and CPI(M) secretary Binoy Viswam questioned the political logic of Rahul Gandhi contesting elections from Kerala.
He said – “North India is considered to be the heartland of India, from where the highest number of MPs come to Parliament. The BJP is a powerful force there. Forgetting that reality, what is the political logic of Rahul coming to South India? It is known to everyone that no one from BJP will be able to win from Kerala. Viswam said that Rahul Gandhi was afraid of BJP so he fled to Kerala. The result was that Congress lost in the entire North India…”

CPI has fielded Panniyan Raveendran from Thiruvananthapuram, VS Sunil Kumar from Thrissur and Arun Kumar from Mavelikara. The CPI is part of the India Bloc, which came into existence to stop the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) Narendra Modi from coming to power for a third time. On the other hand, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, throwing the ball towards the Left, asked that in my own constituency, BJP had finished second in the last two elections. Yet a large share of the anti-BJP votes is taken by the Communist candidate who comes in third place. If it is okay for him to oppose me in Thiruvananthapuram, why can’t Rahul Gandhi oppose him in Wayanad? ,

He also reiterated that the seat-sharing deal for the India block was always dependent on the specificities of each state. Tharoor said “The Left in Kerala has no desire to cooperate with us, while in Tamil Nadu the CPI(M), CPI, Muslim League, Congress and DMK are all together cordially. The reality varies from state to state. ,
Annie said, “It is for the Congress to decide whom it wants to field from where. As an independent party, we also took the decision. This is not the first time that Rahul Gandhi will face a CPI candidate. He did this in 2019 also. Will this have an adverse impact on India Bloc’s campaign against the BJP, Annie said, that is for the Congress to answer, not us.
Meanwhile, Congress leaders from both Karnataka and Telangana states have publicly invited Mr Gandhi to contest elections from their respective states. Mr. Gandhi’s office openly rejected this proposal. It is learned that the Congress has given ‘official media leaks’ to prepare the Telangana electors that former Congress president Rahul Gandhi would consider contesting from Telangana.
After Sonia Gandhi opted for Rajya Sabha from Rajasthan, Telangana Congress leadership is now urging Rahul Gandhi to consider contesting the ensuing Lok Sabha elections from Telangana, in addition to his sitting seat of Wayanad or Amethi. The state party leadership is confident that they can ensure the victory of Rahul with one of the highest victory margins either from Nalgonda, Khammam or Bhuvanagiri where the party did well in the recent assembly polls. The issue has been taken to the notice of Rahul, sources said. Though there was a positive response from senior AICC leaders in Delhi who said the proposal needs to be looked into, the Nehru-Gandhi scion is yet to take a call, it is learnt.. OOO

Share on Facebook

Tweet

Follow us

Save