WAYANAD: Thursday became historic for Wayanad when Congress president Rahul Gandhi and AICC general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra along with other Congress and UDF leaders undertook a massive road show after the Congress president filed his nomination papers. The streets of Kalpetta were jampacked with Congress and Muslim League supporters for the show which stretched over a km from SKMJ high school ground to the collectorate.
From early morning, people had started flowing to Kalpetta from far flung zones of Wayanad, neighbouring districts and even from Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. They included students, women and children representing the constituency which crisscrosses three districts nestled on the Western Ghats. A large number of tribals were also seen in the crowd. The two legislative constituencies of Wayanad district are reserved for scheduled tribes.
Congress workers from various parts of Malabar region, including Kozhikode, Kannur and Malappuram also joined the crowd.
Rahul and Priyanka, who reached SKMJ school ground at 11.15 a.m. along with Congress leaders Mullappalli Ramacha-ndran and Ramesh Chennithala, travelled in an open vehicle to the collectorate for filing the nominations, waving at the waiting crowd. Though a large posse of media crew was waiting at the main gate, the SPG insisted on them entering through the second gate. It took about 25 minutes to complete the formalities.
After filing the nominations, both Rahul and Priyanka, who wore a mustard and red border saree, came out to the waiting crowd in the open vehicle, waving at the crowd who were shouting slogans against Narendra Modi and also the popular Azadi slogans.
As the vehicle inched forward, Mr Gandhi shook hands with many supporters. Workers also hailed his kisan scheme to give a due share for the farmers. Midway when the vehicle of journalists met with a minor accident and two journalists fell down, Rahul jumped down from the vehicle and ensured that the two were sent to hospital in the ambulance in his cavalcade.
When the road show ended at the SKMJ school ground, Rahul and Priyanka interacted with the crowd putting the SPG sleuths in a fix. The crowd remained in the streets till the chopper carrying the Congress president disappeared in the sky.
Two namesakes and a Gandhi too in fray
Two namesakes of Rahul Gandhi have filed nominations at the Wayanad Lok Sabha Constituency when the time for filing nominations ended on Thursday. One is Rahul Gandhi K.E. and the second one is Raghul Gandhi K, a native of Tamil Nadu representing Akhila India Makkal Kazhakam.
In total 23 candidates submitted nominations. One KM Sivaprasad Gandhi is also in the fray. Nine nominations were filed on Thursday alone. The last date for withdrawing the nominations is April 8. Solar-scam accused Sarita S. Nair also submitted nomination.
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