Lok Sabha polls: CPI fields Annie Raja in Rahul Gandhi's Wayanad
Annie Raja to contest from Wayanad, the constituency represented by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi. A member of the CPI national executive, Annie Raja is the wife of CPI general secretary D Raja.
While Congress and Left parties are allies in the Opposition INDIA bloc and share a cosy relation in Delhi, their alliance and friendship are not extended to Kerala, where they are the main rivals, leading UDA and the LDF alliances respectively.
While Congress has not yet announced any candidate, the Left in Kerala has been demanding that Gandhi, given his national profile, instead of fighting from Wayanad against an ally (CPI) of the Opposition INDIA bloc, should opt to fight from a constituency against a BJP challenger since INDIA bloc is meant to fight the saffron party. While CPI traditionally fights from Wayanad seat on behalf of LDF, BJP is a marginal player there.
Political circles are speculating whether Gandhi will again contest from Wayanad and Amethi (or move to Rae Bareli) or whether he will choose a southern seat from Congress-ruled Telangana this time.
While Gandhi had won from Wayanad in 2019 with a margin of over 4 lakh votes and even as the party-led UDF remains strong there, Congress will have to shell out a Rajya Sabha seat from its account in Kerala (in June round of RS poll) to humour the crucial ally, Indian Union Muslim League, mainstay of UDF in Wayanad, after it demanded a third LS seat this time, incidentally, at a time when CPI(M) is trying to woo IUML. While Wayanad has a significant Muslim population, with majority of them being backers of IUML, it also has a notable presence of Christians, a community to which Annie belongs to.
