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CPI fields Sathyam Mokeri against Priyanka for Wayanad bypolls
Mokeri contested the 2014 Lok Sabha election from Wayanad and lost to Congress leader MI Shanavas by just 20,870 votes
The Communist Party of India (CPI) on Thursday named its national council member and former three-time MLA Sathyan Mokeri as its candidate in the upcoming Wayanad Lok Sabha bypolls.
Mokeri, a former MLA from Nadapuram assembly constituency for three terms from 1987 to 2001, will face Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra in the bypoll. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is yet to name its candidate for the crucial bypolls.
Mokeri is currently a member of the party’s national council and former assistant secretary of the Kerala state committee. He contested the 2014 Lok Sabha election from Wayanad and lost to Congress leader MI Shanavas by just 20,870 votes. The 38.92% vote share he garnered as the CPI candidate in that election was the highest the party got in the constituency since it was created post-delimitation in 2009.
Following the announcement, Mokeri told reporters, “I look forward to the contest with a lot of optimism. I strongly believe that the voters of Wayanad constituency are viewing the political developments in the state and the country carefully and will stand with the Left democratic front. The strong campaign we undertook in 2014 election gives us a lot of confidence. We lost by a small margin then.”
When asked about facing a strong challenger in Priyanka Gandhi, Mokeri said, “Hasn’t Indira Gandhi lost elections? Hasn’t Rahul Gandhi and K Karunakaran lost elections? Anyone can face defeat. We believe that Priyanka will lose and the LDF will win.”
The bypolls in Wayanad parliamentary constituency was necessitated after incumbent Congress MP Rahul Gandhi vacated the seat in June this year and chose to retain the second seat of Rae Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh. Rahul won the Wayanad seat in the Lok Sabha elections this year by a margin of 360,000 votes defeating Annie Raja of the CPI.
The bypoll is scheduled on November 13 and the votes will be counted on Nov 23.
