Published Feb 26, 2024 | 6:24 PM ⚊ Updated Feb 26, 2024 | 6:24 PM
Annie Raja. (X)
Ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, the CPI in Kerala announced its candidates for four seats in the state on Monday, 26 February.
CPI national executive member Annie Raja is the party candidate for the Wayanad constituency currently represented by former Congress president Rahul Gandhi.
CPI is a partner in the Opposition’s Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) bloc along with Congress. The two parties, however, are part of rival blocs in Kerala.
On 26 January, Congress MP K Muraleedharan said that Gandhi would contest in the upcoming from the Wayanad constituency.
Annie Raja is also the national general secretary of the National Federation of Indian Women — the women’s wing of CPI. She is the wife of CPI national secretary D Raja.
The list of candidates was announced by CPI state secretary Binoy Viswam.
While announcing the list, Viswam said that Rahul Gandhi was free to contest from anywhere in the country and asked him to introspect the choice of contesting from Wayanad.
“Rahul Gandhi is free to contest anywhere in India. He can also compete from Wayanad. The Communist Party has no hatred towards him and personally, I admire him,” said Viswam.
“If Rahul is being sent as a candidate for Wayanad, the Congress should answer some questions. The party should consider whether Rahul should contest the crucial election from North India, which has many MPs, or from Kerala, which has only 20 MPs,” he said adding that the BJP will make it an issue.
The CPI, a part of the LDF in the state, will be contesting four seats out of the 20 Lok Sabha seats in Kerala.
In the rest of the 16 seats, CPI(M) will contest in 14 and their alliance partner Kerala Congress (M) in one seat.
The other candidates announced by the CPI are Panniayan Raveendran (Thiruvananthapuram), CA Arun Kumar (Mavelikkara) and VS Sunil Kumar (Thrissur).
The CPI(M) and the Kerala Congress (M) are expected to release their final list of candidates soon.
Interestingly, the CPI, the CPI(M), and the Kerala Congress (M) are constituents of the Opposition bloc INDIA.
