Wayanad (Kerala): Thousands of people, including UDF leaders and workers, turned up on Wednesday at Kalpetta here to welcome the incumbent MP Rahul Gandhi who arrived here to file his nomination papers for the coming Lok Sabha elections.
Accompanied by his sister Priyanka Gandhi, Rahul landed at around 10.45 am on a helicopter from Kannur. They were greeted by hundreds of party workers and supporters at the helipad at Muppainad, a village here.
From there he travelled by road to the new bus stand at Kalpetta, the starting point of his roadshow which began at 11.30 am. While hundreds of UDF workers lined up for the roadshow, several people across all age groups carried party flags and placards with the Congress MP's photograph and balloons in the party colours and gathered on the roadsides to welcome him.
Standing atop an open truck, Rahul was flanked by Priyanka and senior party leaders from Kerala as the roadshow moved towards the Civil Station locality. From his vehicle, the Congress MP waved to the thousands who thronged both sides of the road and shouted 'jai jai Rahul Gandhi' and 'down down Narendra Modi'.
Hundreds of party workers and supporters walked in front, alongside and at the rear of the vehicle. Besides Priyanka, Rahul was accompanied by AICC general secretaries KC Venugopal and Deepa Das, AICC in-charge of the National Students' Union of India Kanhaiya Kumar, Leader of Opposition in the state assembly V D Satheesan and KPCC acting president M M Hassan.
Rahul will be contesting against BJP state president K Surendran and CPI leader Annie Raja from the Wayanad LS constituency. He had won from the same seat in 2019 with a massive margin of over four lakh votes.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi won after polling 7,06,367 votes out of a total of 10,92,197 with his closest rival -- CPI's P P Suneer -- receiving only 2,74,597 votes.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Rahul won from Wayanad with a huge margin of over 4.31 lakh votes; the highest margin in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls in Kerala. He secured 64.94 per cent vote share defeating LDF candidate PP Suneer. The NDA had fielded BDJ(S) leader Tushar Vellapally who secured just around 78,000 votes which accounted for a mere 7.25 per cent. The Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) won 19 out of 20 seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
While the Congress won 15 seats, its allies Indian Union Muslim League won two seats, the Revolutionary Socialist Party won one and the Kerala Congress (M) won one seat. The Communist Party Of India (Marxist) won one seat in Alappuzha. (With agency inputs)
