Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and KC Venugopal
Credit: PTI File Photo
Thiruvananthapuram: With high hopes of repeating the 2019 sweep in Kerala in the Lok Sabha polls, the Congress has decided to field 14 of the 15 sitting MPs, including Rahul Gandhi, in the fray in the state again.
The decision of AICC general secretary K C Venugopal to contest from his earlier seat Alappuzha could be seen as a bid to take back the lone seat that the Congress lost in Kerala in 2019. Venugopal had won from Alappuzha in 2009 and 2014. He will now take on CPM's sitting MP A M Arif.
Rahul's candidature from Wayanad was considered to be a key reason for Congress-led United Democratic Front's (UDF) sweep in Kerala in 2019 by winning 19 of the 20 seats.
Even as CPI and CPM vehemently opposed Rahul contesting from Wayanad citing that it would affect the joint fight of I.N.D.I.A bloc against BJP at the national level, the Congress is considering Wayanad as one of the safest seats for Rahul. He won with a record margin of 4.3 lakh votes in 2019.
CPI senior leader Annie Raja is the left-front candidate at Wayanad this time.
BJP was learnt to be awaiting a decision on Rahul's candidature. In 2019, BJP's coalition partner BDJS's leader Thushar Vellappally contested against Rahul. He finished in third place with just 7.25 percent votes. This time BJP was even planning to field a national leader against Rahul at Wayanad. Tribal leader C K Janu was also among the probable NDA candidates at Wayanad, where man-animal conflict is now a burning issue owing to back to back deaths in wild animal attacks.
Padmaja's BJP shift forces Congress to make last minute changes
The Congress was forced to make some last minute changes in its candidates in Kerala as a repercussion of Congress leader K Karunakaran's daughter Padmaja Venugopal joining the BJP on Thursday.
Karunakaran's son and sitting MP of Vadakara in Kozhikode K Muraleedharan will contest from Thrissur, the home turf of Karunakaran, instead of sitting MP T N Prathapan. Congress MLA of Palakkad, Shafi Parambil, will contest from Vadakara.
Congress hopes to counter any attempts by Padmaja to convert Congress votes in favour of BJP's Thrissur candidate Suresh Gopi by fielding her brother Muraleedharan at Thrissur. Moreover, Padmaja had raised serious allegations against sitting MP Prathapan. Gopi is one of the highly hopeful candidates of BJP in Kerala and hence the Congress is more cautious.
Meanwhile, there were also speculations that BJP may field Padmaja in the electoral fray in Kerala.
Other prominent Congress candidates in Kerala include three-time MP Shashi Tharoor, who will take on BJP's Rajeev Chandrasekhar in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala PCC president K Sudhakaran from sitting seat Kannur and Kodikunnil Suresh from Mavelikara for the fourth time in a row.