NEW DELHI: Congress President Rahul Gandhi will contest from Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency in Kerala besides his traditional stronghold of Amethi in Uttar Pradesh, the party announced on Sunday. I am very happy to inform you that Rahul Gandhi will also contest from Wayanad Parliamentary Constituency in Kerala," Veteran Congress leader from Kerala and former Defence Minister A K Antony said.

Antony said that there had been continuous request from Congress workers and also from the allies that Gandhi should contest from a seat in the South.

"While selecting Wayanad, there were many considerations, but, one of the major consideration was, since request was mainly from Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, Wayanad will suit this more than any other seat, because Wayanad even though it is in Kerala, it is a tri-junction," he said.

"Wayanad Parliamentary seat is a tri-junction, on the one side Tamil Nadu, nearest border constituency is Nilgiris and other areas, Nilgiris, Theni and other districts.

"In Karnataka, the nearest constituency is Chamrajanagar, but, border to the entire old Mysore. So it is a tri-junction situated in Kerala, but, served by Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. So, all of us felt, that was ideal state constituency that will in a way satisfy the sentiments of all the three southern states. So, finally decided, Rahul Gandhi Ji will contest from Wayanad parliamentary constituency in Kerala," the Congress leader said.

Why Wayanad could be a safe seat for Rahul Gandhi

Wayanad has been a safe seat for the Congress. In the last two Lok Sabha elections, in 2014 and 2009, M.I. Shanavas of the Congress won the seat, defeating the Communist Party of India (CPI) in Kerala's predominantly bipolar electoral politics.

In that sense, picking Wayanad as Gandhi's constituency is a careful choice as is the calibrated demand to have him contest from a southern Indian seat apart from Amethi where he faces Union Minister Smriti Irani.

The Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency is newly formed and was created following fresh delimitation of seats in 2008.

The seat has been vacant since last year following the MP's death.

For the 2009 Lok Sabha polls, the total number of electors in Wayanad was 11,02,097. Shanavas got 410,703 votes, which was 49.86 per cent of votes polled. He defeated Advocate M. Rahmatullam of the CPI, who got 257,264 (31.23 per cent).

In that election, the Bharatiya Janata Party's C. Vasudevan Master got 31,687 votes.

Compared to 2009, Shanavas had a tough time winning the seat in 2014, scraping through with a little more than 20,000 votes over the second placed CPI candidate to become one of the 44 Congress MPs in the last Lok Sabha.

In 2014, Shanavas got 377,035 votes or 30.18 per cent of the votes polled compared to CPI's Sathyan Mokeri who got 356,165 votes or 28.51 per cent. However, that election saw the BJP placed third with its candidate P.R. Rasmilnath bagging 80,752 votes (6.46 per cent).

(With inputs from IANS)