KALPETTA (WAYANAD): If you thought the namesake phenomenon won’t affect Rahul Gandhi, thanks to his North Indian name which is not that common in this part of the country, you are mistaken. With the final list of candidates in Wayanad officially declared on Monday, the Congress president has three namesakes to deal with. While two candidates share both his name and surname, another one shares his surname alone.
They are: Rahul Gandhi K E, Raghul Gandhi K and K M Sivaprasad Gandhi. While 33-year-old Rahul Gandhi K E hails from Kottayam district, Raghul Gandhi K, 30, is from Coimbatore and is a member of the Agila India Makkal Kazhagam party. Forty-year-old K M Sivaprasad Gandhi hails from Thrissur. With the Election Commission insisting on giving the father’s or mother’s name of the candidates who are namesakes, the confusion would be eased to some extent.
While one namesake will be listed as Rahul Gandhi K E, son of Valsamma, on the EVM, the other person will be listed as Raghul Gandhi K, son of Krishnan P. With only the surname in common, K M Sivaprasad Gandhi will retain his name in the EVM. Political parties are known to field namesakes to split rival votes that may fall to the wrong person due to the confusion in name. In the 2004 Lok Sabha polls, former KPCC president V M Sudheeran lost to CPM’s K S Manoj by 1,009 votes while his namesake V S Sudheeran polled 8,281 votes.