Rahul Gandhi will contest for 2nd constituency in Kerala

India's main opposition party Congress today announced its President Rahul Gandhi would contest from a second constituency Wayanad in Kerala apart from his traditional bastion of Amethi in the key battleground state of Uttar Pradesh in the coming parliamentary elections.

Senior Congress leader from Kerala AK Antony said "Rahul ji has given his consent to contest from two seats, very happy to inform you that he will also contest from Wayanad in Kerala," reports our New Delhi correspondent.

Congress national spokesperson Randeep Surjewala confirmed the announcement and said that Gandhi would be fighting in two seats- Amethi and Wayanad. 

Rahul is at present a Lok Sabha member from Amethi from where his father Rajiv Gandhi had also contested. This is the first time that Rahul, 48, would be contesting from two parliamentary constituencies, the correspondent reports.

Rahul's decision to contest from Amethi and Waynad drew instant jibe from Bharatiya Janata Party which wondered if he is not sure winning from Amethi where his challenger will be federal Textile Minister and former TV star Smriti Irani. In the last national polls five years ago, Rahul had defeated Smriti but his victory margin came down substantially.

Surjewala hit back to the BJP's dig at Rahul's decision to be in fray from two seats by saying the same question could have been asked when Narendra Modi had contested from two parliamentary constituencies—one in Modi's home state Gujarat and another in Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh, in the previous national elections in 2014. Modi finally gave up the Gujarat seat and retained Varanasi.

Several Congress leaders from Kerala and Karnataka had recently urged Rahul to contest from their regions, claiming this will help strengthen the party's position there.

Last week, the Kerala unit chief of the Congress Mullapally Ramachandran had said that Rahul Gandhi is likely to contest from north Kerala's Wayanad constituency. "We have been requesting him (Gandhi) for some time (to contest from the state). When he visited the state in March first week we reminded him again."