Wayanad
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Political history
2009-2014
For Congress’s Kerala unit, Wayanad constituency has been a much-sought-after crown jewel among the 20 Lok Sabha seats in the state for the last decade, ever since it was carved out in the delimitation exercise of 2009.
The constituency, which borders Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, got the tag of ‘safest seat’ of Congress in Kerala after it gave a record margin of 1.53 lakh votes for Congress leader late M I Shanavas in the first election in 2009. Shanavas, who represented the constituency till his death in November 2018, had, however, seen his victory margin dwindle sharply to 20,870 in 2014.
However, the contours of the electoral scene of the traditional UDF bastion has been transformed as never before with the high-profile entry of Congress chief Rahul Gandhi as the candidate this time. With the election set to revolve around the pivot of Rahul’s candidature, it will be an uphill task for LDF candidate P P Suneer of CPI to mount a challenge.
NDA, which had earlier announced VV Paily of ally Bharat Dharma Jana Sena (BDJS), is set to withdraw him and field a more ‘formidable’ candidate. But LDF, which had secured only around 80,000 votes in the 2014 election, does not have the political base in the constituency to give a tough fight.