Thiruvananthapuram: The Congress' decision to field Priyanka Gandhi in Wayanad has been received with much excitement by the party workers at the grassroot level, while the CPI and the BJP have raised criticisms.
Congress workers of Wayanad hope to present a massive victory with a margin of close to five lakh votes for Priyanka in her electoral debut. Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) leadership also wholeheartedly welcomed Congress' decision to replace Rahul Gandhi with Priyanka in their stronghold. Jubilant party workers posted pictures of Priyanka on social media welcoming her to Wayanad.
Congress sources said that Priyanka would be visiting Wayanad in July along with Rahul.
Meanwhile, BJP Kerala leadership flayed that Wayanad was being made a family seat by Rahul. BJP state president K Surendran took a jibe that Priyanka's husband Robert Vadra could also make his electoral debut in Kerala.
CPI state secretary Benoy Viswam said that if this was Congress' plan, a senior leader like Rahul should not have been part of it by contesting from Wayanad.
CPI leader Annie Raja and BJP state president K Surendran, who contested against Rahul in this Lok Sabha election from Wayanad as LDF and NDA candidates, respectively, said their parties would decide whether they should contest again or not.
Rahul, who won with a margin of 4.3 lakh votes in the 2019 election, could get a margin of only 3.64 lakh votes this time. Congress' vote share fell from 64.9 percent in 2019 to 59.7 percent. NDA's vote share, however, increased from 7.25 percent in 2019 to 13 percent this time. Annie Raja could not make much impact as left-front's vote share increased only marginally from 25.24 percent in 2019 to 26.09 percent now.
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