Rahul's contest from Wayanad a fight against Left: Pinarayi Vijayan
Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan Sunday said Congress President Rahul Gandhi's contest in Wayanad in the state could only be seen as a move to fight the Left parties and not the BJP and asserted that the LDF would defeat him in the April 23 Lok Sabha elections.
There was no need to attach any special importance to the Congress President contesting from the state and Gandhi was just one among the 20 candidates of the opposition UDF, who are trying their luck from Kerala, he said.
"If Gandhi's fight is against the BJP, he should have contested against the saffron party. In Kerala, the fight is between LDF and UDF in the elections," Vijayan told a meet-the-press programme at the Press Club here.
He was reacting to the announcement by Congress that Gandhi would contest from the hilly Wayanad, considered a fortress of the party, in addition to the Gandhi family's pocket burrow Amethi seat in Uttar Pradesh in the polls.
"The present move can only be seen as a fight against the Left. But, we have no anxiety...we are fully confident and will strive to defeat him in Wayanad," the CPI-M veteran said.
Gandhi had announced earlier he would retain Amethi in Uttar Pradesh as his constituency after elections, he said.
"So, it is like...Gandhi will continue as the MP from Amethi and in Wayand he is examining if he can defeat the Left", the Chief Minister said asking what message the Congress was conveying to the people through the move.
When asked about the proposed post-poll alliance with the Congress at the national level, Vijayan said it was a matter to be thought off after the elections.
BJP state chief P S Sreedharan Pillai said the Congress decision to field Gandhi from Wayanad showed the "decay" in the grand old party.
"After realising that he will lose from Amethi, Gandhi has decided to contest from wayand", he told reporters here.
The BJP would give a "tough fight" to the Congress candidate, he said adding Gandhi's Wayanad contest was being viewed by the party as "acceptance of defeat".
The state Congress leaders were all in a jubilant mood over the AICC chief's decision.
Leader of the Opposition in the state assembly Ramesh Chennithala said the party'saim was to ensure Gandhi's victory with a massive margin.
"I challenge Pinarayi Vijayan, if he can defeat Rahul Gandhi in Wayanad and we accept the challenge," he told reporters at Alapuzha.
It would be a "historical win" for Gandhi in Wayanad and there would be a "Rahul wave" in the entire state, he claimed.
"A prime ministerial candidate is contesting from Kerala for the first time and this will have an impact in the entire state," he said adding the UDF would win all 20 seats.
Party's state unitPresident Mulapally Ramachandran said the decision to field Gandhi from Wayand would be "a happy news for secular-democratic forces" in the state.
He also remembered how former Congress presidents Indira Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi had scripted impressive victories from South India.
Congress leader M I Shanavas, who died in November last year, had won Wayanad, known for its picturesque locales and spices, in the 2009 and 2014 elections.
The LDF has decided to field CPIs P P Suneer in the constituency this time while BJP-NDA yet to announce its candidate.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
