It's for Cong to decide whether Rahul should fight BJP or Left: Kerala CM Vijayan

Thiruvananthapuram, Dec 5

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Tuesday said it's for the Congress to decide whether Rahul Gandhi should contest against the BJP or the Left.

Vijayan was responding to a question on reports of Gandhi re-contesting from Wayanad.

"It's for the Congress to decide where Gandhi should contest from and also if he needs to fight the BJP or the Left," said Vijayan, while interacting with the media at Thrissur as part of the daily schedule at his statewide trip.

The CPI(M) is also indirectly part of the I.N.D.I.A block, but they are yet to send a representative to its decision-making body as it's only in Kerala that the CPI(M) and the Congress are engaged in a bitter political battle.

In 2019, Gandhi won in Wayanad by a margin of 4.31 lakh votes defeating the CPI candidate, which is the second biggest ally of the ruling Vijayan government.

"None needs to have a doubt, there will be our candidate in Wayanad," added Vijayan.

In September when the Kerala unit of the CPI at their national leadership meeting pointed out that they will request the Congress party to see Gandhi be fielded against a BJP candidate, it was met with resistance from the CPI(M) and was shot down.

At the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, even when the CPI(M) raised huge hopes of doing well, it was literally swept away with the Congress-led UDF winning 19 out of the 20 seats, while the former won just one.

On how the Left will fare in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls as Vijayan and his entire cabinet is on a statewide trip, he shot back, "We have no doubt about the result."

Claiming that the BJP is making unnecessary noise about how they will perform at Thrissur, the Chief minister said, "We all saw the big noise the BJP made last time and the same happened at the Assembly polls too. They will fail to make any impact this time also," said Vijayan.

Superstar Suresh Gopi was fielded to the Lok Sabha and Assembly from the Thrissur constituency and ranked third. The BJP which had one seat in the 2016 Assembly polls, lost that at the 2021 polls.