For a political leader, who aspires to be Prime Minister, contesting from two Lok Sabha seats, does not make sense. One, it reflects political insecurity; two it is wasteful expenditure because no sooner is a new government in place that he will have to vacate one seat, necessitating another costly polling exercise in that constituency. In the case of Rahul Gandhi, the decision to contest from Wayanad in Kerala, is bizarre, to say the least. It does not give out the right signal when a leader like him, a scion of the Gandhi family, choses to opt for an additional constituency leaving his beloved Amethi in the lurch. He must have good reasons to do so though. With the feisty Smriti Irani on his tail and an uncertain alliance with the SP-BSP staring him in the face, Rahul has clearly chosen to go in for the softer option. 

The fear of getting cornered in Amethi is clearly weighing on his political conscience. Apart from the motives, many believe Kerala is the wrong choice. For one, Congress is reasonably strong in that state. Wayanad lies at the tri-junction of states, and fighting from there can have a ripple effect across neighbouring states in the south, a purpose that could have been easily served by contesting in any of those provinces. Indeed, Karnataka or even Andhra Pradesh, would have been a better choice in terms of regenerating the party’s old catchment areas. The Congress is fighting a grimmer battle with higher stakes in Karnataka. And Andhra is one province where its old imprint has more or less vanished. Ditto for Tamil Nadu. 

There is little doubt that a friendly Stalin would have gladly hosted him, the speeches would have been equally aligned against a common foe like Narendra Modi, and the ripples could have been bigger. By going for Kerala, Rahul Gandhi has forfeited that chance, gained nothing much in return, and stirred up some avoidable trouble. The bigger problem for Rahul is that it pits the Congress against the Left. This when the two are staunch allies in the fight against ‘communalism’. There is bound to be bad blood in the heat of the campaign, something that the Congress’s main rival, the BJP, will watch with glee. It is downright bad optics — a waste of mental and political resources all around. 

Politically speaking, a sharper and less triangulated fight would have been preferable. It would be no exaggeration to suggest that the best times for the Congress and the Left was pretty much UPA-1, between 2004-2008, when they were together. The nature of electoral politics is such that the old bonhomie would be thrown in the dustbin. Rahul has quoted the example of Modi, who contested from two seats in the 2014 Lok Sabha election, Varanasi and Vadodara. But that can hardly be an excuse for repeating the same in 2019. In theory, when two political heavyweights contest from two seats simultaneously, it becomes an unhealthy trend. If this logic is taken to its conclusion and if every leader decides to pick up two constituencies to contest instead of one, there will simply be no constituencies left for everyone to contest.