Wayanad: Rahul Gandhi will retain the United Democratic Front (UDF) bastion of Wayanad for the second consecutive time, the ManoramaNews-VMR exit polls indicated. But the former Congress president’s vote share will shrink alarmingly by nearly 14 per cent, as per the exit poll.
This corresponds with a surge in the LDF vote share. Voters probably think Rahul will vacate the constituency if he wins from Raebareli in Uttar Pradesh, the seat vacated by former Congress President Sonia Gandhi. Raebareli is considered a Congress bastion and it was the lone seat the grand old party won in Uttar Pradesh in 2019.
The entry of high-profile leaders in CPI’s Annie Raja and BJP state president K Surendran also reflected in the erosion of vote share from the UDF kitty. Still, Rahul Gandhi is poised to garner 50.99 per cent of votes from the constituency. Annie Raja is slated to get 35.48 per cent votes and K Surendran will garner 10.65 per cent votes, as per exit poll projections.
The exact dip in the vote share of Rahul Gandhi is estimated at 13.65 per cent. The LDF got 10.36 per cent more votes than its share in 2019. Despite the high-profile candidature of BJP state president K Surendran, the saffron party managed to boost its share by only 3.44 per cent.
In 2019, Rahul Gandhi, who received a shock defeat in Amethi Constituency by BJP candidate Smrithi Irani, had won by a massive margin of 4,31,770 votes in the Wayanad constituency. The polls also resulted in Wayand getting national media attention. Rahul bagged 7,06, 367 votes while his main rival PP Suneer of the CPI managed to get 2,74,597 votes. BDJS president Thushar Vellapally, who contested as the NDA candidate, came a distant third with 78,816 votes.