The Congress has announced that Rahul Gandhi will compete again from Wayanad.
The Congress fielded incumbents in 14 constituencies, including Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee president K. Sudhakaran from Kannur and Congress Working Committee member Shashi Tharoor from Thiruvananthapuram.
All India Congress Committee general secretary (organisation) K.C. Venugopal said he would contest the parliamentary elections from Alappuzha, his home turf for lengthy years.
The AICC supplanted T.N. Prathapan, Congress incumbent from Thrissur, with K. Muraleedharan, MP, whom the party had signalled will contest again from Vadakara. It named Shafi Parambil the party’s candidate from Mr. Muraleedharan’s constituency, staving off LDF criticism that the Congress list lacked a Muslim face.
The candidate list declared by the AICC included Rajmohan Unnithan (Kasaragod), M.K. Raghavan (Kozhikode), V.K. Sreekandan (Palakkad), Ramya Haridas (Alathur), Benny Behanan (Chalakudy), Hibi Eden (Ernakulam), Dean Kuriakose (Idukki), Kodikunnil Suresh (Mavelikara), Anto Antony (Pathanamthitta), and Adoor Prakash (Attingal)
The Congress reportedly felt that fielding Mr. Gandhi again from a safe seat in Kerala would free the INDIA bloc leader to campaign for the anti-Bharatiya Janata Party platform nationwide without feeling fettered by constituency concerns.
Mr. Venugopal told reporters in New Delhi that the United Democratic Front geared up its Lok Sabha election campaign by finalising the list of Congress candidates. He said Mr. Gandhi’s candidature from Kerala would galvanise party workers and the UDF would bag the 20 Lok Sabha seats.
