Ravi Shankar Prasad, the Minister of Law and Justice of India, on the 31st of March, took a dig at Rahul Gandhi, the President of the Indian National Congress (INC,) for contesting the Lok Sabha elections from Wayanad, Kerala.
The criticism of Mr. Prasad came after the INC, on the 31st of March, announced, Rahul Gandhi will be contesting two seats in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
The first constituency from where Rahul Gandhi will contest is Amethi in Uttar Pradesh, whereas the second one will be Wayanad in Kerala.
The BJP members criticised Mr. Gandhi for opting for Wayanad as it is a safe seat. They further stated, he took the decision because he is scared of losing the Amethi seat to Smriti Irani, the Minister of Textiles of India.
In Kerala, the strongest Party is the Left Democratic Front (LDF,) which is a coalition of Left wing parties such as the Communist Party of India (CPI,) the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] and many other small parties.
There is a high probability of Rahul Gandhi winning in the Wayanad constituency, as 48 % of the people in Wayanad are Hindus, whereas others belong to minorities and are likely to vote for Rahul Gandhi.
The competition is less in Wayanad compared to any other constituency in India, where the opposition Party is the BJP.
Speaking about the Amethi constituency, the BJP said, with the BJP as the opposition, it is difficult for the INC to sweep the Amethi seat against Smriti Irani, the BJP member nominated to contest from the Constituency.
Randeep Singh Surjewala, a senior leader of the INC, slammed the BJP for its comments and said, “The BJP minister (Smriti Irani) earlier lost from both Amethi and Chandni Chowk (in Delhi). Now, she is prepped up for losing again in Amethi.”
Mr. Surjewala also compared the current situation to the Lok Sabha elections of 2014, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi contested from two seats. Gandhinagar in Gujarat and Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh were the two seats from where PM Modi contested in 2014.
Mr. Surjewala said, “Why did Narendra Modi leave Gujarat to contest from Varanasi? Was he in a weak position in Gujarat?”
The INC justified the decision of Rahul Gandhi contesting from Wayanad as the Party not wanting to disappoint the Party workers in the South, who wanted Rahul Gandhi as a MP candidate. The INC also said, we believe, the Southern states are also an important part of India, following which, the INC President decided to contest the Lok Sabha elections from Wayanad.
The Lok Sabha elections are scheduled to begin from the 11th of April and end on the 19th of May.
The major parties contesting the Lok Sabha elections are the BJP and the INC.
The results of the elections will be announced on the 23rd of May 2019.
Stay tuned for further updates about the Lok Sabha elections.
