Lok Sabha elections: 10 things to know about Kerala’s Wayanad, Rahul Gandhi’s second seat

NEW DELHI: In a major decision, the Congress on Sunday announced that party President Rahul Gandhi will also contest the Lok Sabha polls from Wayanad in Kerala, apart from his present constituency of Amethi in Uttar Pradesh. "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," Veteran Congress leader from Kerala and former Defence Minister A K Antony said told the media. Here are 10 things to know about Wayanad, Rahul Gandhi’s second Lok Sabha seat 1: 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. 2: The Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency is newly formed and was created following fresh delimitation of seats in 2008.  It was carved out from Kozhikode and Malappuram districts on November 1 1980 as the 12th district of Kerala and has 886.92 sq km of area under forest. 3: Wayanad district is in the north eastern part of Kerala and houses various tribal groups of the state. The area was badly affected due to last year's floods. 4: The Wayanad Lok Sabha seat comprises seven Assembly segments -- Mananthavady, Sulthan Bathery, Kalpetta, Thiruvambady, Ernad, Nilambur and Wandoor -- and has a total voter population of 13,25,788, of whom 6,70,0002 are females. 5: 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). Congress' Shanavas had a tough time winning the Wayanad seat in 2014. The Congress candidate won the seat with a little more than 20,000 votes. 6: The predominantly agrarian constituency, Wayanad, where coffee, tea, cocoa, pepper, tea and Cardamom are the chief agricultural crops, is also a much sought after tourist destination with its stone age carvings of Edakkal caves, scenic locales, breathtaking waterfalls. 7: Wayanad is also a trekkers delight, with some of its peaks towering 2,100 metres above sea level. 8: Wayanad has a large mix of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe community. 9: Perched on the western ghats, Wayanad shares its borders with Mysore and Chamarajanagar in Karnataka and Nilgiris in Tamil Nadu. Congress leader Antony said Wayanad is situated in Kerala, but also surrounded by Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. 10: 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.