CPI’s Annie unlikely to contest against Priyanka in Wayanad

Annie Raja, the wife of CPI general secretary D Raja and general secretary of National Federation of Indian Women (NFIW), is unlikely to be fielded by the party in the Wayanad Lok Sabha bypoll, where Priyanka Gandhi will be the Congress candidate.

The EC on Tuesday said the bypoll would take place in Wayanad on November 13. The Kerala constituency fell vacant after Priyanka’s brother Rahul Gandhi decided to resign from the seat and retain the family bastion Rae Bareli — he had won from both seats in the General Election.

Annie was fielded against Rahul in Wayanad then. She lost to him by a huge margin of over 3.6 lakh votes. Sources said Annie had been ruled out from being fielded in Wayanad again because of the huge margin of defeat to Rahul. Priyanka, who has never contested an election before, is expected to sail to victory from Wayanad where the Muslim League, part of Kerala’s Congress-led UDF, has strong base.

CPI Rajya Sabha MP Sandosh Kumar P said despite having a strong base in states such as Manipur, Telangana and Karnataka, the CPI did not put up any candidate in these states because it did not want to weaken the fight against BJP by putting up a candidate against an aspirant from another INDIA bloc constituent who might be contesting from the seat. “But in the case of Wayanad, we cannot do that because then, the BJP would take advantage of the absence of a strong candidate against Priyanka and try to mobilise anti-Congress votes in its favour,” Kumar added.