Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and Communist Party of India (CPI) candidate Annie Raja submitted their nominations for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections on Wednesday, April 3, from the Wayanad constituency.

The nominations were submitted following mega road shows held by both the candidates, in which thousands of their supporters showed up on the streets.

Rahul Gandhi was also accompanied by the All India Congress Chairperson (AICC) Priyanka Gandhi, and other prominent leaders. Addressing the crowd, Rahul said that he is always grateful for the love shown by the people of Wayanad. “It (Wayanad) is my home and the people of Wayanad are like my family,” he added.

Rahul Gandhi further said that being the sitting MP, he had raised the pressing issues including the man-animal conflict and lack of medical facilities in Wayanad, many times in the Parliament and with the Kerala government. 

Meanwhile, Annie Raja told ANI that she is not worried about his majority or his fate, but is focused on informing people about her plan of action. Criticising Rahul Gandhi, she said “people are asking what he had done for the constituency for the past five years, So this is a post-mortem in that sense, and naturally people think that they have not gained anything.” She also alleged that the core issues in Wayanad including the human-animal conflict were never taken up in the parliament.

Wayanad is one of the constituencies where the strongest candidates of CPI and Congress are contesting against each other. Kerala BJP president K Surendran is the other opposing candidate to Rahul Gandhi and Annie Raja in Wayanad.