New Delhi:

Over 2,000 km and nearly the length of the country, as well as starkly different socio-economic, cultural, linguistic, culinary, and political realities, separate Amethi in the Hindi heartland of Uttar Pradesh and the Left-dominated Kerala’s Wayanad Lok Sabha seats.

They are, however, linked by Rahul Gandhi, who has represented both constituencies.

Mr Gandhi has confirmed his candidature from the latter, which he won for the first time in 2019; the win was critical since it allowed him to retain his MP status following a seismic defeat to the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Smriti Irani in the party’s family bastion.

There remains a tantalising ‘will he, won’t he’ air about Amethi, which has been (and continues to be, by some accounts) a staunchly Congress seat in a state that has voted, religiously, for the saffron party and the ‘Modi wave’ since the 2014 general election.

But till Mr Gandhi and the Congress either confirm, or deny, a homecoming, the focus is on Kerala and a Wayanad seat that has voted for the party since it was formed after a delimitation exercise in 2009. MI Shanavas won the first two polls and Mr Gandhi the third.

READ | Rahul Gandhi’s “Soldier” Reply Amid Suspense Over Amethi Fight

Rahul Gandhi’s 2019 win was resounding; he secured a massive 65 per cent of the vote share and polled over seven lakh votes. For context, his nearest rival was PP Suneer of the Communist Party of India. The BJP – which has traditionally struggled in the southern state didn’t even field a candidate. It did in 2014, but PR Rasmilnath got fewer than 81,000 votes.

The numbers suggest Wayanad will remain with the Congress, for, based on data from the last two general elections, neither BJP nor the CPI have the numbers to mount a challenge.

But there is still quite a contest brewing in the constituency, with at least two plotlines (not including Rahul Gandhi and the Amethi mystery) making for a dramatic encounter.

The first, and biggest, is the INDIA vs INDIA story.

The Congress heads the INDIA bloc that was announced in June last year and includes over a dozen opposition parties that have united to stop the BJP claiming a third successive term.

The CPI is also a member but, in a peculiar twist, will contest against the bloc leader after it failed to persuade the larger party to allow it to field a candidate unopposed.

The Congress has played down the import of this contest. Party comms boss Jairam Ramesh emphasised that all Left parties remain a part of the group but “this does not preclude group partners from contesting against each other in different states, especially in Kerala”.

Annie Raja, the General Secretary of the National Federation of Indian Women and one of the Left’s tallest leaders, has been chosen to stand against Mr Gandhi.

Lok Sabh 2024 | Wayanad – A Scenic Constituency That Is Congress’ Stronghold

Speaking to reporters in February – her candidature was announced weeks before the Congress named Rahul Gandhi – she would only say that each party had the right to propose a candidate, and that it would be up to the people to decide.

The CPI vs Congress story in Kerala is at odds with an alliance between the Left and Mr Gandhi’s party in other states, and this has been flagged by the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has made multiple visits to Kerala over the past few weeks.

It has also prompted Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan to speak out in support of his Left colleagues and demanding to know why the Congress and Mr Gandhi had chosen to fight an ally, when he could take on the BJP in a potentially statement-making contest in Amethi.

The other subplot is the BJP’s pick to contest this seat – its state unit boss, K Surendran.

Mr Surendran has expressed confidence in his party’s chances this election, and has attacked Mr Gandhi and the Congress for “working against India”. His more recent attacks have been fueled by the row over the Congress leader’s “wealth survey” remarks.

READ | “Wayanad Wants To Say Goodbye To Rahul”: Kerala BJP Candidate

The row over the idea of wealth re-distribution has been picked up by the Prime Minister and has now become the BJP candidate’s big weapon in a state ruled by a Communist party.

Meanwhile, even more interesting than Prime Minister Modi’s visits to Kerala is the fact that the BJP sent Smriti Irani to stand by K Surendran’s side as he filed his nomination papers.

READ | “Jijaji Ki Nazar…”: Smriti Irani Mocks Rahul Amid Amethi Pick Buzz

Ultimately, history isn’t really on the BJP’s side in this contest. The party will hope, however, that the INDIA vs INDIA squabble will mean it can pick up a few extra votes.

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Thiruvananthapuram:

Announcing candidates for the remaining four seats in Kerala, the BJP on Sunday fielded its state chief, K Surendran, in the high-profile Wayanad constituency against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.

Scholar and former vice-chancellor of Sree Sankara Sanskrit University, K S Radhakrishnan, and actor-turned-politician G Krishnakumar will contest from the Ernakulam and Kollam constituencies, respectively.

T N Sarasu, former government college principal, would seek electoral luck from Alathur in the northern Palakkad district.

The BJP is striving to break decades-old bipolar politics dominated by the Congress-led UDF and the CPI(M)-led LDF in Kerala.

The party had earlier announced the candidates for 12 seats. Its ally BDJS will contest four seats in the state.

With the surprise candidature of Mr Surendran in Wayanad, a traditional Congress bastion, the BJP is trying to give a fitting reply to its opponents by fielding a strong candidate against Rahul Gandhi. CPI’s Annie Raja is the candidate of the state’s ruling Left in the constituency.

Mr Surendran, the face of the saffron party’s fierce agitations against the entry of young women into Sabarimala years ago, has been serving as the president of the state unit of the BJP since 2020.

Hailing from Ulleyeri in Kozhikode district, Kunnummel Surendran, who began his career as Wayanad district president of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha, had unsuccessfully contested from Pathanamthitta in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

Though he was fielded from Konni in the assembly bypoll in the same year, he couldn’t make it.

Known as a close confidant of Union Minister V Muraleedharan, Surendran lost the Manjeswaram constituency by a mere 89 votes in the 2016 Assembly polls.

A well-known scholar, writer, orator, and academician, K S Radhakrishnan joined the BJP in 2019.

He served as the vice-chancellor of Sree Sankara Sanskrit University in Kalady and the chairman of the state Public Service Commission during the tenures of the Congress-led UDF governments in the state before beginning his political career.

He unsuccessfully contested from the Alappuzha Lok Sabha constituency during the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

Fifty-five-year-old G Krishnakumar is an actor-turned-politician and is currently a national council member of the BJP.

In 2021, Krishnakumar contested on the BJP ticket to the state assembly from Thiruvananthapuram.

T N Sarasu, a former government college principal who hit headlines over her confrontations with the Left student union, will contest from Alathur to take on sitting MP and Congress leader Remya Haridas and State Devaswom Minister and senior CPI(M) leader K Radhakrishnan.

Kerala’s 20 Lok Sabha constituencies will go to polls on April 26.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)