I treat you like my family, not as a mere electorate: Rahul Gandhi in Wayanad

WAYANAD: Congress leader and Wayanad MP Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday expressed his gratitude to the people of the constituency for electing him as a member of Parliament in the last general elections, saying that he has been blessed with the love of people there. Addressing a gathering ahead of filing his nomination from Wayanad for the Lok Sabha elections, Rahul Gandhi said that he treats people of the constituency in the same way he treats his younger sister Priyanka Gandhi.

"It has been an honour for me to be your member of Parliament. I don't treat you and think of you like an electorate. I treat you and think of you the same way I think of my little sister Priyanka. So in the houses of Wayanad, I have sisters, mothers, fathers and brothers. And I thank you from the bottom of my heart for that," Rahul Gandhi said.

He further said that he was always ready to bring Wayanad's issues to the attention of the nation and world.

"There is an issue of man-animal conflict, medical college issue. I stand with the people of Wayanad in this fight. We have tried to pressurise the government on the medical college, I have written letters to the CM. But unfortunately, they have not moved forward. I am absolutely convinced that if we have a government in Delhi and when we get a government in Kerala, both of which we will do, we will resolve these issues," he said.

"I am not making just a political speech. Regardless of their parties, communities, age, every single person in Wayanad gave me love, affection, respect and treated me as their own," the Congress leader added.

Earlier, Rahul Gandhi held a roadshow in the constituency, thousands of party workers and supporters turned up for the roadshow. The Congress leader was accompanied by his sister Priyanka Gandhi and AICC general secretary's K C Venugopal and Deepa Dasmunshi as well as Leader of Opposition in the state assembly V D Satheesan and KPCC acting president M M Hassan. Communist Party of India (CPI) Lok Sabha candidate from Wayanad, Annie Raja also filed her nomination on Wednesday.

The CPI is a partner of the ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led Left Democratic Front in Kerala. While the CPI and the Congress are partners in the opposition INDIA bloc, the two parties are fierce contenders in Kerala with both parties pitting their strongest candidates against each other. In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Rahul Gandhi won from Wayanad with a huge margin of over 4.31 lakh votes; the highest margin in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls in Kerala.

He secured 64.94 per cent vote share defeating LDF candidate PP Suneer. The NDA had fielded BDJ(S) leader Tushar Vellapally who secured just around 78,000 votes which accounted for a mere 7.25 per cent. The Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) won 19 out of 20 seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. While the Congress won 15 seats, its allies Indian Union Muslim League won two seats, the Revolutionary Socialist Party won one and the Kerala Congress (M) won one seat. The Communist Party Of India (Marxist) won one seat in Alappuzha.