Kalpetta: Rahul will reach Calicut International Airport at Karipur on Wednesday evening, but his travel to Wayanad, whether by air or road, was yet to be finalised.
The security agencies have cleared a helicopter trip from Kozhikode to the SKMJ school ground at Kalpetta. Thereafter, Rahul and his team will reach a textile compound nearby from where they will be taken in a road show to the civil station which is hardly a km away.
The road show will end about 200 metres from the collectorate as per the election guidelines. From there, four persons, accompanied by Special Protection Group commandos, will walk to the collector’s chamber to file the nomination before district collector A.R. Ajayakumar, chief electoral officer of the constituency, at 11. 15 a.m.
Congress leaders K.C. Venugopal and Mukul Wasnik, apart from Priyanka Gandhi, are expected to accompany Rahul. Three sets of nomination papers prepared earlier will be filed. The process will take less than 15 minutes.
The district Congress committees of Kozhikode and Wayanad have demanded that instead of flying down to Kalpetta from Kozhikode, Rahul and his team should go by road creating an impact on the Kozhikode constituency too. However, the election officials and security agencies are yet to clear the proposal. Security agencies have opposed the idea hinting at the Maoist threat en route and the risk of providing security throughout the ghat section.
After filing the nominations, Rahul Gandhi will also attend a high-level meeting of leaders before leaving Kalpetta. The dates for the next round of visit and mode of campaign will be decided at the meeting, according to sources.
Apart from SPG, personnel from the national security agencies are also a keeping a tab on the movement of suspected elements accused in Maoist cases. The border check-posts are also on full alert.
