Aditi Tandon
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, March 23
The intra-Congress clamour for party president Rahul Gandhi to contest from South India intensified further on Saturday with the Kerala unit urging him to contest the Lok Sabha election from Wayanad.
Last week, the Karnataka Congress organisation had similarly invited Rahul Gandhi to consider contesting from any seat in the state.
The pattern of proposal was similar to the one witnessed in Karnataka. Former CM of Kerala Oommen Chandy made the first public remarks in this connection on Saturday followed by senior leaders including Mulapally Ramachandran.
The Congress was quick to indicate that no decision on Rahul Gandhi’s second seat besides Amethi had yet been taken. “The party has not taken any decision in this regard yet. The Congress president has conveyed that he would consider the Kerala request in the same spirit in which it has been submitted, with affection and respect but a call has not yet been taken. State units keep making such proposals to express their trust in the leadership of the Congress chief and to invite him to represent their area. But Rahul has repeatedly clarified that his political battlefield is Amethi and Amethi alone,” Congress media head Randeep Surjewala said on Saturday.
In their enthusiasm to leave a door ajar for Rahul Gandhi should he decide to fight from two seats in the end, state units of the Congress have triggered questions around how comfortably the party chief finds himself placed in Amethi which the SP and BSP combine have left for the Congress despite striking a pre-poll alliance among themselves.
Rahul Gandhi has won three elections from Amethi — his first in 2004, in 2009 and in 2014.
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