Congress to field mix of youth and experience for Kerala polls: Rahul Gandhi

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday said the party-led United Democratic Front (UDF) will sweep the upcoming assembly elections in Kerala and the party will field a mix of youth and experienced candidates to achieve this.

Addressing a meeting of party office-bearers in Nilambur, part of his Lok Sabha constituency Wayanad, he said winning this election was important to the party and the leaders will go all out in the coming days. He said the party will field more youth and women, but experienced people won’t be left out and it will be a proper mix of both.

“We will devise a new election strategy. Manifesto committee is a step towards this. Manifesto panel members will meet a cross section of people and it will reflect aspirations of people. If we work systematically we can sweep the election. I am sure we will achieve this,” he said while addressing a meeting of the UDF block office-bearers. Senor leader and Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor heads the manifesto committee with the assembly elections being due in April-May.

On a two day visit to his constituency, he will kick-start the party’s election campaign in the state and meet many leaders. There are reports that he will campaign extensively in the state-- his candidature in Wayanad and 2018 Sabarimala stir protesting against the Supreme Court verdict allowing entry of women of all ages at the hilltop shrine are considered the main reasons for the landslide win of the UDF in the last Lok Sabha polls in which it bagged 19 out of 20 seats.

Earlier in the day, Gandhi interacted with girl students in Wandoor after inaugurating a new block of the Government girls’ higher secondary school. He asked students to be independent, financially and psychologically, and open up to knowledge around them.

After the local body election debacle in December, the party had summoned three top leaders of the state-- former CM Oommen Chandy, state president Mullapally Ramachandran and opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala to Delhi to formulate a fresh strategy for assembly elections. It also named a 10-member panel to supervise elections in the state.

As the polls draw near, many youngsters have started flocking to the party offices seeking seats. Party national spokesperson Shama Mohammad, a woman TV personality, Kerala Students Union state president K M Abijith are some of the names doing the rounds. There are reports that Shama Mohammad will be fielded from one of the seats in Kannur in north Kerala. A doctor by profession, she hails from north Kerala.