NEW DELHI: With months left for the Lok Sabha elections, uncertainty looms in political circles over whether Congress MP Rahul Gandhi would seek a mandate from Wayanad Lok Sabha for the second time.
Sources said the former Congress president is likely to contest from two seats and there is thinking in the party that he should contest either from Karnataka or Telangana instead of Wayanad in Kerala. The other seat would be Amethi in UP.
This comes amid the Congress’s seat sharing stalemate with ally Indian Union Muslim League, which is adamant on a third Lok Sabha seat for the party, preferably Wayanad.
On Monday, Congress general secretary (organisation) K C Venugopal hinted that he is willing to contest from Alleppey. Sources said the party will be spreading itself thin if two top leaders contest from the same state. Moreover, Rahul’s presence in Congress-ruled Karnataka or Telangana would further bolster its chances to secure more seats.
Meanwhile the CPI, an ally of the INDIA bloc at the national level, announced senior party leader Annie Raja as its candidate from Wayanad. Annie Raja is the joint candidate of the ruling CPM-led Left Democratic Front. She is the wife of CPI general secretary D Raja and a member of the party’s national executive.
Some Opposition leaders are of the view that two INDIA leaders fighting against each other would be bad optics for the alliance and give ammunition to the BJP to attack them.
Speaking to this newspaper, D Raja said the CPI did not hold any discussion with Congress on this. “Wayanad is a CPI seat. We haven’t discussed the seat with Rahul or Congress. We only discussed with our LDF partners,” he said.
Rahul won the Wayanad seat in 2019 Lok Sabha elections with a huge margin of over 4.31 lakh votes defeating the CPI candidate P P Suneer. However, he lost to Union minister Smriti Irani in his second seat and pocket borough Amethi.
Though there is no clarity on whether Rahul will take on Irani in Amethi, sources said that ally Samajwadi Party wants him to contest from there.