Will It Be Wayanad? Rahul Gandhi May Decide On LS Poll Bid From Southern State Today: Sources

Congress president Rahul Gandhi is expected to take a call later on Wednesday on whether or not he will contest the upcoming Lok Sabha polls from a second seat in southern India, besides his family pocket borough of Amethi, Uttar Pradesh, party sources said.

Wayanad, the Congress stronghold in North Kerala, continues to be the possible seat from where Rahul may contest, if at all he decides to enter the poll fray from South India too.

Over the past two weeks, Congress leaders from Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu have urged Rahul to contest from a seat in their respective states too. Formal representations on the demand have also been made to Rahul from party leaders like Oomen Chandy, Mullapally Ramachandran, Ramesh Chennithala (all from Kerala), Siddaramaiah and Dinesh Gundu Rao (from Karnataka).

The party's leaders from these states believe that Rahul's decision to enter to electoral fray from any of these states will have a positive ripple effect on all constituencies of the region and help the Congress win a significant number of seats here. This, the leaders say, will help the Congress offset its possible losses in the northern and central Indian states where the BJP is still seen to be in a strong position.

A senior leader said that if at all Rahul does agree to the demands of his party colleagues, Wayanad, situated in the Western Ghat region of Kerala is likely to be his choice.

The Wayanad seat, carved out of Mallapuram, Kozhikode and Wayanad districts in 2009 was won by the party's MI Shanawas in the past two elections.

The demand for Rahul's candidature from Kerala, however, is also a bid by state Congress leaders to gloss over their factional feuds. With the recent demise of Shanawas, Congress leaders Chandy, Ramachandran and Chennithala have been fighting to have one of their loyalists nominated as the party candidate from Wayanad. Chandy's confidante, T Siddique had initially been told to contest from Wayanad but he has now bowed out claiming that he was doing so for Rahul.

The Congress is fighting the Lok Sabha polls in Kerala with its allies in the UDF coalition. Of the 20 states in the seat, the Grand Old Party will be contesting on 16 seats while allies IUML is fielding candidates on 2 seats. Kerala Congress (Mani) and RSP have got one seat each. With the exception of Wayanad, candidates have been announced for all seats by the UDF. The state goes to polls on April 23, the third phase of the seven-phase election.

Demands had also come from Karnataka leaders for Rahul to contest from Bidar or any other seat in the state. However, it looks very unlikely now that Rahul will consider contesting from Karnataka, a senior party leader said. Of Karnataka's 28 Lok Sabha seats, the Congress is contesting 21 while the remaining constituencies have gone to HD Deve Gowda's JD (S). The only seats on which the Congress has not declared candidates yet are Dharwad, Bangalore South and Koppal. Each of these seats are BJP strongholds. A senior party leader said that while Rahul would "comfortably win from anywhere, him contesting from any of these seats will force the Karnataka Congress top brass to spend a lot of time campaigning for the Congress president as he can't be expected to devote a big chunk of his campaign schedule to one constituency".

Sources said that a section of the Tamil Nadu Congress as well as it's alliance partner, MK Stalin's DMK were also keen that Rahul contest from a seat in their state. The DMK-Congress alliance is tipped to sweep the polls in Tamil Nadu. Sources said that former finance minister P Chidambaram was keen that Rahul contests from Sivaganga. Chidambaram was the MP from Sivaganga for eight terms but his son, Karti, lost the seat when he contested from here in 2014. Sources said that Chidambaram's keenness to have Rahul contest from Sivaganga was largely due to a perception that the Congress leadership may deny Karti a ticket owing to the cases of corruption that he is facing trial in presently. After initially holding back an announcement on the Sivaganga seat, the Congress declared Karti as the party candidate last week.

If Rahul agrees to contest from a southern state he will be the third member of the Nehru-Gandhi family to do so. His grandmother, former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, had successfully contested twice from South India - once from Medak in Andhra Pradesh (now in Telangana) and then from Karnataka's Chikmaglur. Rahul's mother, Sonia Gandhi, too had won a Lok Sabha election from Karnataka's Bellary. However, the family has always chosen to vacate the seat it wins from the southern states, preferring to retain their constituency in UP in the Lok Sabha.

The indecision on Rahul's part on taking a final call on whether or not he wants to contest the polls from a southern state is also because of the narrative that the BJP would spin on the decision. Union minister Smriti Irani who is contesting the polls against Rahul from Amethi once again, after her failed bid of 2014, has already said that the demands for the Congress president to contest from the south were "manufactured" because Rahul was set for a defeat in Amethi and needed a safe seat. The Congress has slammed Irani claiming that she has lost the polls twice, once against Kapil Signal from Chandni Chowk in Delhi and then against Rahul, and is set to lose a third time in a row.

Congress media cell chief Randeep Surjewala has said that Rahul is considering the demands from all the southern states but has not committed himself to any seat yet. He added that irrespective of Rahul's decision on contesting from the south, Amethi "is and will always remain the karmabhoomi of the Congress president". Kerala Congress president Mullapally Ramachandran told Outlook that Rahul had shown interest in the request from the party leaders for him to contest from Wayanad and that key UDF partner, IUML, which holds significant electoral clout in the Mallapuram seat adjoining Wayanad has also "fully supported" the demand. "Rahul ji will decide today or latest by tomorrow", Ramachandra added.