Wayanad, Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s choice as his second constituency, is arguably the safest seat for the Congress in south India and among the safest in the entire country. Mr. Gandhi’s main rival will be P.P. Suneer of the CPI. The BJP has a marginal presence in the constituency.
The Congress chief had been undecided over contesting from Wayanad, considering the multiple battles of perception that it brings. First, while he has been pointedly trying to define the 2019 election as a fight to save India from advancing Hindutva, he will end up facing off with the Left, an adversary in Kerala but an ally nationally. Second, he will be accused of “running away” from Amethi. Third, the more fundamental question: whether contesting two seats will be seen as a sign of weakness. After weighing the pros and cons, on which he received divergent opinions, the decision was taken.
Congress sources close to Mr. Gandhi are emphatic that they sense no challenge in Amethi. But the volatility in Uttar Pradesh, despite the formation of the SP-BSP alliance and its declaration of support for Mr. Gandhi in Amethi, is palpable. The battle lines in the critical State have not been defined yet, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s campaign blitz has only begun. That said, the reason for national leaders contesting a second seat is less because of any insecurity in one seat and more for expanding their personal imprint to critical territories, as Mr. Modi himself did in 2014 by contesting from Vadodara in Gujarat and Varanasi in U.P.
A step ahead of BJP
Congress leaders explain Mr. Gandhi’s decision in those terms. “Rahul Gandhi sees India as an integrated one, with equal prominence for all regions and diversities. The decision to contest from Wayanad is to contest Mr. Modi’s divisive politics, and to end the BJP’s dream of opening its account in Kerala this time,” Congress general secretary K C Venugopal, a close confidant of Mr. Gandhi, told The Hindu. A surge in the south will be critical for the party’s comeback bid. In 2004 and 2009, it was the overwhelming victories in the south that catapulted the party to power. Party units and allies in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu were also keen on having Mr. Gandhi contest from their States. While the Congress is trying to keep the narrative as a national contest against the BJP, Wayanad could mark a complete rupture between the Congress and the Left. The formation of the United Progressive Alliance in 2004, in which the then CPI(M) general secretary Harkishan Singh Surjeet played a decisive role, was the expression of a broad consensus that the fault-line of Indian politics was whether this should be a Hindu majoritarian nation or not. That conceptual clarity was lost with the break between the Congress and the Left over the India-U.S. civil nuclear deal, in 2008. Feeble efforts were made for a reconciliation this year and both sides were even trying to make an alliance in West Bengal, only weeks ago. Kerala is the Left’s only standing citadel at the moment. Threatened in its stronghold, the Left could turn bitter towards the Congress. “Congress does not see this as a fight against the Left at all. Wayanad is a sitting Congress seat, where the Left had little chance of winning anyway,” Mr. Venugopal said.