Smriti Irani to join K Surendran in filing nomination in Kerala's Wayanad
KALPETTA: Union Minister for Women and Child Development and Minority Affairs Smriti Irani will visit Wayanad to accompany NDA candidate K Surendran when he files his nomination. The state BJP president will submit his papers at the Kalpetta collectorate at 10am on April 4. Smriti will later attend a roadshow and public meeting in town, Surendran shared in a Facebook post on Sunday.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who is the sitting Wayanad MP, will submit his nomination on April 3. News of the arrival of Smriti, who defeated Rahul in his sitting LS constituency of Amethi in 2019, has been received with great zeal by NDA supporters. Smriti had challenged Rahul to contest from Amethi this time as well, which the latter accepted.
Though Amethi in Uttar Pradesh, was known as a bastion of the Gandhi family, the BJP chose Smriti to effect a change of guard. Though Rahul defeated her by a margin of 1.07 lakh votes the first time they crossed swords in 2014, Smriti had her revenge in 2019, trouncing the former Congress president by 4.68 lakh votes.
Surendran’s candidature from Wayanad was declared last week, while Rahul and LDF candidate Annie Raja’s names were announced much earlier. Though there was speculation that BJP would field a national-level leader to take on Rahul, now the party plans to make a big splash with its campaign. It is in this context — and the fact that she has proved to be a bugbear of Rahul — that Smriti’s visit assumes importance.
However, when Surendran reached Wayanad last week, CPI’s Annie was almost wrapping up the second phase of her election work in the constituency.
She will receive a further boost when Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan visits Thiruvambady, Wandoor and Nilambur assembly segments today for campaigning.