Kerala BJP state unit chief K Surendran.
Credit: PTI Photo
Thiruvananthapuram: BJP Kerala president K Surendran, who has been made NDA's Wayanad candidate, has said that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will face the same fate that he had faced at Amethi.
"People of Wayand will do what the people of Amethi did to Rahul. Rahul did not address any issues or development needs of Wayanad, whereas the BJP government at the centre included Wayanad in the aspirational districts programme and initiated development activities,' Surendran told reporters.
He also ridiculed that his two opponents were 'tourists' and both are from the I.N.D.I.A. bloc. "Congress candidate Rahul Gandhi and CPI candidate Annie Raja are tourists, while it is my soil as I was Yuva Morcha district president of Wayanad,' said Surendran, who expressed high hopes of putting up a good fight at Wayanad.
In 2019 BJP's coalition partner BDJS's leader Thushar Vellappally contested as NDA candidate at Wayanad. He came in third place with only around 79,000 votes while Rahul got 7.06 lakh votes.
Surendran's candidature at Wayanad came as a surprise as he was planning to keep off from contesting. But the BJP wanted to give a good fight at Wayanad and hence the party zeroed in on Surendran. There were speculations that any leader of national stature or tribal leader C K Janu could be fielded.
Surendran contested from Pathanamthitta in 2019 and secured 29 percent votes,which was nearly 14 percent more than that of 2014. Surendran grabbed much attention during the stir against entry of women in the 10-50 age group to Sabarimala in 2018-19. Subsequently he was made the party state chief in 2020.
BJP also decided to field actor turned politician G Krishnakumar at Kollam, party state vice president K S Radhakrishnan at Ernakulam (Kochi) and retired principal T S Sarasu at Alathur.