A vast majority in Wayanad, Kerala, wants Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to contest from the Lok Sabha constituency in the upcoming poll.

In 2019, Rahul won from the constituency with an impressive margin of 4.32 lakh votes, polling 64.94 per cent of the total votes cast in the election. All his challengers were left humbled, losing their security deposits in a one-sided contest.

Wayanad, situated atop the Western Ghats, is a traditional Congress bastion, leaving no doubt about Rahul’s prospects in the upcoming election. Despite his commitments as the party’s top national leader, he has remained active in the constituency. Interestingly, none of the voters with whom The Pioneer interacted could recall the names of the two candidates who had contested against Rahul in the 2019 polls.

Even hardcore CPI (M) supporters want Rahul to run from Wayanad in this election. “The constituency gained international attention because of Rahul’s decision to contest from here. Although the constituency is yet to receive any major projects, it has faced discrimination under the CPI (M)-led Government in Kerala. Moreover, whenever there was an emergency, Rahul promptly attended to the constituency,” said Rajendran, a CPI (M) supporter.

Another CPI (M) worker pointed out that if the Congress-led Opposition wins the 2024 polls, Rahul would be the automatic choice as the Prime Minister, and Wayanad would have the distinction of being the constituency represented by the Prime Minister.

The CPI (M)-led Left Democratic Front had allocated the constituency to the CPI, the poor cousin of the former, since there were no takers from the Marxist party itself. The CPI, described as the ideological giants among the global Communist movements, has fielded Anie Raja, wife of the CPI’s all India general secretary D Raja.

According to political grapevine in the CPI State headquarters at Thiruvananthapuram, nobody from the party was willing to take up Mission Wayanad for it is certain that they would bite the dust, and that was how Anie has been made the sacrificial lamb.

Binoy Viswam, the Kerala secretary of the CPI, asked Rahul to move out of Kerala and fight against the BJP/RSS combination to prove his credentials as a secularist. But what Viswam left unsaid was the fact that the CPI, along with its Big Brother CPI(M), are allies of the Congress in the rest of the country.