Kasaragod: The Congress was planning to project Rahul Gandhi as a candidate backed by the Indian National Developmental, Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) in Wayanad and the LDF has strongly objected to it, said CPM state Secretary M V Govindan.
He said CPI is an executive member of the INDIA -- an umbrella alliance of 40 political parties -- and the party's leader Annie Raja is contesting in Wayanad as LDF's candidate. "But the Congress is projecting Rahul Gandhi as a candidate with the backing of the INDIA bloc. Shamelessness. What else can we say? How else can we describe it?" said Govindan at the 83rd anniversary of Kayyur Uprising at Kasaragod's Kayyur village on Friday.
There would have been no problem if the Congress leader contested a candidate of the United Democratic Front (UDF) like all the other 19 candidates in Kerala, he said.
In Alappuzha, Congress General Secretary in-charge of the organisation K C Venugopal is contesting against LDF's sitting MP A M Ariff. "There he is a UDF candidate," Govindan said and asked why Gandhi was being projected as an INDIA candidate.
In Kerala, he said, BJP would not win any seat. "The contest is between LDF and UDF. There is no need to use the label of INDIA and contest in Kerala," said the CPM's chief in Kerala.
CPI state Secretary Binoy Viswam said he was astonished to hear that Gandhi was the INDIA candidate in Wayanad. "To my knowledge, no meetings of the INDIA alliance or the candidature of the Wayanad constituency were ever discussed. The fight in Kerala will be the straight between LDF and UDF. In such a situation, those people in the Congress should have a moral duty to explain to the people what authority they have, to announce that Rahul Gandhi is the candidate of the INDIA alliance," Viswam told news agency ANI.
