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HYDERABAD: CPI could be eyeing Rahul Gandhi‘s Kerala citadel as part of a still-to-be-sealed seat-sharing arrangement with INDIA ally Congress after the state’s governing LDF, of which it is a part, picked Wayanad among four Lok Sabha seats that the party can contest.
CPI general secretary D Raja said after the party’s national executive meeting concluded in Hyderabad on Sunday that there was no discussion on asking Congress to leave Wayanad. But he didn’t rule out the possibility either.
“Wayanad is one of the four seats CPI got as part of the seat-sharing agreement within LDF. It is at that stage as of now. In West Bengal, we got three seats,” he told TOI.
Rahul won the Wayanad seat in 2019 by a margin of over 4 lakh votes against the second-placed CPI candidate. Congress had won the seat in 2009 and 2014, too, with CPI finishing runner-up on both occasions.
Raja’s wife Annie, who is CPI’s national mahila samakhya general secretary, is tipped to be the party’s candidate in Wayanad if Rahul chooses to go elsewhere. The three-member committee set up for seat-sharing talks with Congress includes Raja and national secretaries K Narayana and Ramakrushna Panda.
“The national executive focused on the strategy that needs to be adopted to stop BJP from returning to govt,” said a source privy to the discussions. Communist Party of India’s Kerala unit will first negotiate with the state unit of Congress, the source said. “The three-member committee may then ask AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge and others in Delhi to look into the possibility of leaving the Wayanad Lok Sabha seat to us.”
CPI general secretary D Raja said after the party’s national executive meeting concluded in Hyderabad on Sunday that there was no discussion on asking Congress to leave Wayanad. But he didn’t rule out the possibility either.
“Wayanad is one of the four seats CPI got as part of the seat-sharing agreement within LDF. It is at that stage as of now. In West Bengal, we got three seats,” he told TOI.
Rahul won the Wayanad seat in 2019 by a margin of over 4 lakh votes against the second-placed CPI candidate. Congress had won the seat in 2009 and 2014, too, with CPI finishing runner-up on both occasions.
Raja’s wife Annie, who is CPI’s national mahila samakhya general secretary, is tipped to be the party’s candidate in Wayanad if Rahul chooses to go elsewhere. The three-member committee set up for seat-sharing talks with Congress includes Raja and national secretaries K Narayana and Ramakrushna Panda.
“The national executive focused on the strategy that needs to be adopted to stop BJP from returning to govt,” said a source privy to the discussions. Communist Party of India’s Kerala unit will first negotiate with the state unit of Congress, the source said. “The three-member committee may then ask AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge and others in Delhi to look into the possibility of leaving the Wayanad Lok Sabha seat to us.”
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