KALPETTA: Wayanad constituency, which has drawn national attention due to the candidature of senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, has finally come alive as the BJP announced K Surendran as its candidate.
Surendran started his campaign with a road show on Tuesday. CPI’s Annie Raja, who is the LDF candidate, completed the first and second phases of the campaign. The UDF election campaign is yet to gather momentum. Party workers hope that Rahul Gandhi will reach Wayanad for campaigning in the first week of April.
NDA candidate K Surendran was received by state, district leaders of NDA at Lakkidi on his arrival in the constituency Tuesday. Later, a roadshow was conducted from Lakkidi to Kalpetta Canara Bank premises. “With the road show of K Surendran, the NDA campaign has become more energetic. We have been carrying out campaigning at ward and constituency levels for the past two weeks. We have started poster campaign, constituency- wise conventions and other traditional as well as social media campaign,” said Prashanth Malavayal, NDA convenor in Wayanad constituency.
Annie Raja took out a procession in Eranad Assembly constituency in Malappuram district on Tuesday. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan will attend LDF rallies at Mukkam in Thiruvambady Assembly constituency in Kozhikode district, and Nilambur and Vandoor Assembly constituencies in Malappuram district on April 1.
Meanwhile, the Wayanad district Congress leadership has informed that Rahul Gandhi will reach the constituency next week. “The constituency conventions as part of the first phase of the campaign are over. The formation of booth-level committees is going on along with the ward-level family conventions. Though Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is expected to reach the constituency by April 2, party workers and district leaders are carrying out the campaign with the aim of increasing the victory margin of Rahul Gandhi this time,” DCC president N D Appachan said.